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THE WAR 



OF 



ORMUZD AND AHRIMAN 



IN THE 



NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



BY 

HENRY WINTER DAVIS. 



Litora litoribus contraria, fluctibus undas 
Imprecor, arma armis : pugnent ipsique nepotesque. 



BALTIMORE: 
JAMES S. WATERS, 244 BALTIMORE ST. 



MDCCCLII. 






Entered, according - to the Act of Congress, in the year 1S52, by 

Henry Winter Davis, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Maryland. 



JOHN D. TOY, PRINTER. 









TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 



The American People have passed the season 
of youth when withdrawn from the eye of the 
world their pleasures might blamelessly be their 
pursuits. 

In the maturity of years and strength they are 
amenable to mankind for the conformity of their 
conduct to the higher motives of policy and duty. 

They cannot if they would be silent and neutral 
in that great controversy of the age which they 
opened on the field of battle. 

It concerns their safety that the part they play 
be adopted in full view of all the dangers that 
beset them. 



IV TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. 

It concerns their dignity that their part be worthy 
of their origin and pursued with manly fortitude 
to the end. 

I have endeavored to develope some of the con- 
siderations which throw light on the path of safety 
and of honor. 

On this great theme I invoke the judgment of 
the American People. 

HENRY WINTER DAVIS. 

8 March 1852. 



CONTENTS. 



FAOZ. 



I. The Holy Alliance, 9 

II. The Conspiracy op Laybach and Verona, . . 65 

III. The Revolt of France and Poland against 

the Holy Conspirators, 117 

IV. The Revolt of Europe in 1848 against the 

Holy Conspirators. — Germany, .... 157 

V. The Revolt of Europe in 1848 against the 

Holy Conspirators. — Hungary 213 

VI. The Dictatorship of Russia in Europe, . . 273 

VTI. The Relations of American and English 

Liberty to the Russian Dictatorship, . 313 

VITT. The American Republic and the Last War 

of Freedom and Despotism, 365 



SECTION I. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 



Vt ithin the four score years oi the life of man 
two powers have grown from insignificance to be 
the arbiters of the world. 

They occupy opposite continents. They are actu- 
ated by hostile principles. They are organized on 
antagonist theories of political power. In each is the 
principle of its existence absolute, pervading every 
department of government, infused into every ele- 
ment of society, and controlling the administration 
of affairs. There is no formally organized opposition 
to the existing order of things. There is no serious 
division of feeling or of opinion among the citizens. 
The people are equally devoted to the form and to 
the substance of their respective constitutions. The 
foundations of both governments firmly rest on the 
express or implied assent of the people — who are 
ready to signalize their devotion on the field of battle. 

Each is the incarnation of one of the two great 
spirits, pure, absolute, unchecked, uncontrolled, un- 
limited, which have always striven and now still strive 
on the theatre of nations for the mastery of mankind. 



12 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

Those two spirits are Liberty and Despotism — the 
Ormuzd and Ahriman of the political world. Their 
purest incarnations are — The Republic of America 
and The Empire of Russia. 

There are other free States beside those of America. 
There are other despotisms beside that of Russia. But 
there are none of either class so purely and simply 
the impersonations of the antagonist spirits. England 
is a free government: but the doctrine of popular 
sovereignty is limited by aristocratic privileges, and 
the field is cumbered still by the ruins of the pro- 
gressing conflict. The dormant power of the people 
is denied by some, opposed by others, and struggles 
to retain while it strives to extend its confessed 
domain. France is a republic in form, in principle, 
and by the feeling of the vast majority of her people ; 
but sinister influences mis-direct her power, conflict- 
ing pretences paralyze her activity — she is yet the 
theatre of conflict of contending principles, not the 
great domain of any confessed and conceded power. 
The Bourbon, the Orleanist, the Bonapartist still lift 
their aspiring heads in contentious emulation against 
the majesty of the Republic. 

Austria and Prussia are despotic military monar- 
chies : — but their thrones are not beds of roses. 
The people of both are alive with hostile hopes and 
fermenting with pent up energies and fiery wrath. 
They restlessly heave beneath the military weight 
which oppresses them. Their sighs and their groans 
testify to their discontent, while they confess the 
power of a despotism they cannot throw off. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 13 

It is only in the Republic of America that the peo- 
ple, imbued with the spirit of liberty, are the recog- 
nized, uncontrolled, unquestioned sovereign power. 

It is only in Russia that the Emperor is met by 
the cheerful, unquestioning, submissive and affection- 
ate devotion of the people. They worship in his 
person the embodied sovereignty of the nation ; and 
in the tempest of an insurrection his simple words to 
his children — have sufficed to calm them. 

On the spirit and character of the government the 
discontent and restlessness of the Polish provinces 
in the one case exert no more disturbing influence, 
than the millions of slaves in the Southern States do 
in the other. The despotism and the republicanism 
respectively are quite as absolutely pure and free 
with, as they would be without those elements of dis- 
content. They are both sources of possible danger 
and of certain weakness : neither of them affects the 
character or the spirit of the government : neither is 
so powerful as to make either government pause in 
its career or vary from its course. 

The progress of each of these powers has been 
equally rapid and equally illustrative of the spirit and 
principles which animate their policy. The one has 
thriven amid the arts of peace and industry. The 
other has gorged its greatness by the spoils of war 
and the fruits of intrigue. 

At the date of our Revolution, Russia was just 
entering on her career as an European power : and 
her fit introduction was a deed of blood and shame. 
At the opening of the eighteenth century the Musco- 
vite was confined in his northern home — barred off 



14 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

from civilized Europe by the colossal republic of 
Poland which pressed him behind the Dwina and 
the Dnieper, and excluded from the Baltic and the 
Euxine by the Swede and the Turk. 

Thus for centuries pent up in the desolate north, 
the Dukes of Moscow had consolidated their power 
on the ruins of the Empire of the Mongol. They 
nourished the lust of conquest by ceaseless aggression 
on their neighbors, and trained their people to the 
habitudes of war while expanding the sphere of their 
power. But their quarrels and their conquests were 
alike almost unknown and uninteresting to civilized 
Europe till the triumph at Pultowa securely seated 
Peter the Great on the Baltic. The provinces of 
Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria and Karelia, the spoil of 
that day, in 1710 brought him into direct connection 
with the maritime nations of Europe. His genius 
and his ambition inspired the hope and provided the 
means of playing a high part on this new theatre; 
and from that day to this, the eyes of Peter and of his 
successors, whether in the ship yards of Saardam and 
Deptford or in the palaces of St. Petersburg, have 
turned with longing eagerness to the West, till their 
arts and their arms and their hereditary and unscru- 
pulous ambition have consolidated a colossal Empire 
extending to the very heart of Europe and now — 
the arbiter of its destinies. 

Poland and the Ottoman Empire were at once the 
chief obstacles and the most alluring objects of 
Russia's far-seeing ambition. 

For eighty years she waged a war alternately 
of arms and of intrigues against the Turk — noAv 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 15 

advancing with rapid flight on the wings of fortune, 
now pausing in her career to secure her conquest, or 
with feigned moderation concealing defeat by volun- 
tary restorations of parts of her prey — till time and 
opportunity should give the signal of advance. The 
flood of her conquest has risen and rolled onward 
over neighboring nations — like the tides of the 
ocean — each wave rolling high on the shore and 
sinking back to the sea with alternate advance and 
retreat — yet each higher than the former and steadily 
gaining in the midst of apparent fluctuations. 

Her pretexts have been as Protean as her purpose 
has been single. Religion, humanity, liberty, na- 
tional independence, national institutions, social 
order, have, each in turn, been under the disguise 
of protection the pretexts of aggression, and finally, 
the victims of her infernal devices. 

Peter not only made Russia an European power: 
he set the example of stretching its roots towards 
the soil of the East. He seized Azoff and overran 
the Crimea: but was compelled to relinquish them. 
Ann followed his example and met his fortune: she 
again grasped at, but was obliged to abandon their 
possession; and to content herself with confirming 
her dominion over the territory of the Zaporagua 
Cossacks. 

Catharine renewed the contest : and conquered the 
Crimea, Moldavia and Wallachia : but she was able 
to hold only Azoff and the coveted access to the 
Euxine. Yet true to the instincts of her Empire, 
what she relinquished she did not restore. She 
declared the Crimea, Kuban and Budjek independent 



16 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

of Turkey , and so effectually secured the future 
dominion of Russia. 

For awhile she contented herself with setting up 
and pulling down Kahns of the Cossacks, till they 
sought refuge from her caprice in rebellion. The 
vengeance of the enraged Semiramis was slaked in 
the blood of thirty thousand people; and the Turks 
paid the penalty of their intermeddling by securing 
to Russia the sovereignty of Kuban and the unlimited 
right to navigate all the Turkish seas. The Euxine 
ceased to be a Turkish mare clausum. 

These humiliating terms goaded the Turks into 
a renewal of the unequal conflict : and Catharine 
retired at the peace of Jassy in 1792 with a confirm- 
ation of her former conquests augmented by the 
territory of Oczakow and the shores of the Euxine — 
which the combined power of England and Prussia 
failed to tear from her iron hand. 

She could not at a blow prostrate an empire so 
wide at the foundation, so lofty in its battlements as 
the Ottoman,; but besides the fragments rent away, 
great crevices and cracks shewed the power of the 
assault and facilitated the success of the next. Rus- 
sia could not hold Moldavia and Wallachia: she 
therefore stipulated for their national rights under 
her protection: and so loosened their allegiance on 
Turkey and linked their sympathies to her arms. 

While all Europe was immersed in the struggle 
with Napoleon, Alexander pushed his conquest on 
the south; and at the peace of Buckarest in 1812 
he secured the province of Bessarabia and the mouths 
and line of the Pruth. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 17 

The Greek revolution excited by Russian intrigues 
gave the occasion of renewed hostilities: and the 
treaty of Adrianople dictated within a day's march 
of Constantinople and only submitted to because 
English ships lay at the Dardanelles — transferred to 
Russia the delta and mouth of the Danube, cut off 
by a quarantine the principalities of the Danube from 
Constantinople, secured a perpetual right of adminis- 
trative interference, and laid Turkey at the mercy of 
the Czar — whenever the great powers of Europe 
should happen to be lukewarm or engaged or unable 
to protect her. 

Thus has Russia pressed downward from her 
boundaries in the time of Peter into the Turkish 
territory five hundred miles, swept round three-fourths 
of the Euxine sea, crossed the isthmus between that 
and the Caspian sea, and eaten deep into Armenia 
and the Persian territory. A few years more and 
the Euxine will be a Russian lake. 

Her westward march over prostrate kingdoms and 
slaughtered nations — has been not less terrific, nor 
less rapid, but vastly more menacing to the seats of 
civilization and the home of freedom. 

The miserable dissensions of the Polish aristocracy 
gave access to her intrigues; and pretexts for her 
interventions. She fomented factions that she might 
be called on to quell the disturbances. She set up 
and pulled down candidates for the tottering throne : 
and from the centre of Poland organized her deadly 
conspiracy against its existence. 

The same victory of Pultowa which opened the 
way of Russia to the Baltic, secured the influence of 
3 



18 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

the Czar on the throne of Poland in the person of 
Augustus III. On his death, Catharine II. secured 
by an armed intervention one of her paramours 
Stanislaus Poniatowski the electoral vote ; and sin- 
cerely devoted to the integrity of national constitu- 
tions^ she volunteered her guarantee of that vile 
constitution on which she founded her hopes for 
the future. The Romish Church displayed its per- 
secuting propensities by way of complicating the 
puzzling drama; patriotism drove noble-minded Poles 
to defend the acts of their national church ; and the 
Russian Catharine, the friend of scoffers and infidels, 
the mother of superstitious millions, the earnest sup- 
porter of the mummeries and follies and slavish sub- 
mission of the Greek Church, defiled by every per- 
sonal and sensual vice, and stained all over with the 
blood of murdered innocence, — she, assumed the 
office of an angel of light, and benevolently bent on a 
mission of mercy covered with her motherly bayonets 
the persecuted Dissenters and Protestants. She con- 
siderately removed to Siberia, the hardened prelates 
who were deaf to her entreaties, and coerced from 
the terrified and dismembered diet a treaty securing 
the dissenters' rights under her supervision. 

That men should become impatient under such 
intolerant tolerance was but natural. Their restive- 
ness caused their volunteer governess continual anx- 
ieties. They even stirred up the Turk to the auda- 
city of aggression. That weak assault was easily 
overthrown. But there was little policy and much 
trouble in thus governing by intrigue and arms so 
intractable a nation. The laborer is worthy of his 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 19 

hire, and so devout a Princess could not fail to per- 
ceive the sanction of Providence for her just designs. 
She conspired with her two fellow tyrants, Joseph of 
Austria and Frederick of Prussia, to divide with her 
the burthens and the benefits of governing a stiff- 
necked and rebellious generation, who could not or 
would not govern themselves. The infamous parti- 
tion of Poland in 1772 — just about the period of our 
Revolution — deprived that Republic of her most valu- 
able provinces and brought Russia into direct contact, 
on a long line of frontier, with two of the leading 
powers of Europe. Similar pretexts, devised from 
similar motives, and instigated by the sharpened 
appetite of Muscovite rapacity, renewed the disgrace- 
ful scenes in 1792 and 1793, and reduced the nation- 
ality of Poland to a shadow, and her territory to a 
speck. It was reserved for the darkest period of the 
storm of the French Revolution, when Austria, Prus- 
sia and Russia were clamorous at its aggressive spirit 
and propagandist principles, and coalitions for na- 
tional defence against French arms and French dis- 
organization were the order of the day ; when those 
powers were the preachers of moderation, the cham- 
pions of justice, and the Quixotic defenders of the 
weak — it was this time and with these professions 
on their lips, ere the echo of their howl over the 
death of Louis XVI. had ceased to ring in the ears 
of Europe, that these powers chose to complete the 
work so auspiciously begun, and obliterate the last 
shadow of Poland from the face of the earth. 

It was a fit sequel to these iniquities that the 
spoilers should begin to prey on each other — and visit 



20 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

on their accomplices the retribution of their rapacity. 
A greater than either of them arose and dealt with 
them as they had dealt with their unoffending vic- 
tim. — The Gaul shattered their brittle and patched up 
Empires — and flung a piece of Prussian Poland to 
the greedy Muscovite — who did not hesitate to snap 
at the offal. Two years later that same Gaul tore off 
and flung down before the same Muscovite a piece of 
Austrian Poland, and he greedily devoured the gra- 
cious morsel. 

Similar acts, equal iniquities, less stubborn resis- 
tance, less civilized foes, have augmented the Empire 
of the Czars to the East and to the South — over the 
steppes of Tartary, and the snows of Siberia, the 
crags of the Caucasus, and the barriers of Persia. — 
The blackness of its shadow casts a gloom over Asia 
and Europe. It lowers on the confines of China, 
chills the genial warmth of Hindostan, and eclipses 
the crescent on the dome of St. Sophia. Naked 
liberty shivers and cowers at the utmost ends of 
Europe beneath its numbing power. 

These are the triumphs of despotic ambition, 
wielding absolute power with a miserly devotion to 
accumulation of territory and power — pitilessly exact- 
ing the utmost interest in every investment in human 
life unterrified by the flow of blood — with a single- 
ness of purpose and a consistency of pursuit, savoring 
of supernatural impulse, or satanic possession. 

Thus has this semi-barbarous Empire thriven on 
blood and rapine; but the fragments torn from its 
victims by arms, have been carefully cemented by the 
arts of peace and industry. The area of the Empire 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 21 

now is a fourth greater than that of Peter. It fills the 
vast expanse between the White and the Caspian 
seas, and stretches from the confines of China, deep 
into the heart of Europe — where it is the neighbor of 
all Germany, the terror of Prussia and the master of 
Austria. Its population has grown from fifteen to 
sixty millions. Its ordinary revenue, flowing chiefly 
from customs, is about eighty millions of dollars. Its 
exports for 1843 amounted to eighty-two millions of 
rubles of silver. Its agriculture covers three hundred 
millions of acres, and yields a hundred and fifty mil- 
lions of quarters of wheat and rye, of which more 
than nine and a half millions are exported. The 
vast rivers which flow from the centre to the four 
seas are united by canals which connect the naviga- 
tion of the White, the Black, the Caspian and the 
Baltic seas. The vast plains stretching from sea to 
sea — unbroken by a mountain range — are being inter- 
sected by railways for whose construction the genius 
of the world is laid under contribution. 

This population and these resources are devoted to 
the support of a military and naval power of the first 
magnitude. Peter laid the foundation of a navy, 
which sedulous culture, and lavish expense, and the 
absoluteness of despotism have raised to a rate second 
in nominal greatness to that of England only; but 
its automaton sailors are no match for the sea-bred 
tars of Albion, and freedom has still her home upon 
the waves. On land this Empire supports an 
army whose complement approaches a miHion of 
men. This stupendous force is so disposed as to be 
significant of the designs and direction of Russian 



22 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

ambition. For while 16,000 men watch the great 
prison house of Siberia;, and a like number guard 
the Finland frontier, and 64,000 from Orenburg 
repress the predatory Tartars — the great moveable 
European army of operation consists of 465,720 men, 
though seldom actually numbering over 360,000; 
with 1250 pieces of cannon, and the European army 
of reserve numbers 202,480 men, with 470 pieces of 
artillery — besides the clouds of irregular cavalry 
which a wave of the imperial arm can call up from 
the Asiatic confines of the Empire. This power is 
no half-formed, ill-trained, disorganized horde of 
barbarians. It is well-trained, rigidly disciplined, 
implicitly devoted to its Emperor, and pliant to the 
slightest word of its officers. It is not led by a 
Tamerlane or an Alaric; but generals versed in all 
the science of modern war marshal this gigantic 
force in the field of action with the same familiar ease 
that they do a regiment on parade. The names of 
Suwarrow, Paskevitch and Debitch are graven in 
characters of indelible mould on the broken fragments 
of the Empire of the Turk, on the ruined walls of 
desolated Poland, on the shattered temple of Hun- 
garian Freedom. Past success casts its brightness 
on the future. These men of iron stand now no 
longer on the borders of Europe and Asia, in the 
distant and frozen north, but in the very midst of 
civilized Europe, in battle array, with lighted 
matches and fiery zeal — and nothing between them 
and the Rhine but the labors of the march. 

That the master of this power is ambitious by na- 
ture, by inheritance, by ancient policy consecrated 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 23 

by unbroken success — all history teaches. But it is 
the principle which animates him, it is the foe he 
would humble which makes his ambition worthy of 
our notice. 

In this age of the world two principles of govern- 
ment divide mankind. Only in reflective minds are 
they stated with logical consistency and pushed to 
their legitimate bases ; but the minds of all men are 
on fire with the contest, and devoted to the one or the 
other cause. 

The one theory — rejecting with contempt the shal- 
low fiction of the social contract, and with indignation 
the impious arrogance of the "right divine" — traces 
the fundamental principles of civil society in the 
nature and wants of man, written there by the finger 
of God, and surrounded by feelings, tendencies and 
capacities which in their natural development assume 
the shape and attributes of national existence under 
formal governments. The relations of civil society, 
those of citizen and subject, of ruler and ruled, rest 
on the same foundation and have the same origin 
with the relations of the family and of the church. 
Men surround themselves with families, not from 
any consciousness of the blessings that flow from 
them, nor from obedience to any divine command, 
but at this instigation of a divine impulse operating as 
a law, pointing to the family as its object, and execut- 
ing itself unconsciously. Reflection develops its 
origin and explains its reasons, purposes and limits 
only after the fact. It assumes various forms, and con- 
fers various rights, whether of person or of property, 
according to the different views and necessities of the 



24 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

nation or the individual by whom they are applied. 
The forms and the rights of family relationship vary 
with the nation, the age, the religion; but all are 
equally forms in which the original tendency to 
family associations develope themselves. 

It is so with civil society and the rights of govern- 
ment. The nature of man drives him into social 
organizations, varying in complexity and complete- 
ness with the state of his advance from the patriar- 
chal family, through the Indian tribe with its chief, to 
the elaborate organization of the American Republic. 
The purposes of civil society can only be attained by 
the instrumentality of government, reducing to the 
forms of law the will of the nation, and coercing 
submission from its individual members. The right 
to prescribe these laws and direct their execution is 
sovereignty. That power in the state which holds 
that right in the last resort, is the sovereign power. 
The persons who actually apply and execute those 
laws, are the officers and delegates of that sovereign 
power. Wherever that sovereignty resides, it must 
be absolute, uncontrollable, and arbitrary. It can be 
subjected to no constraints rightfully. It should 
govern according to the rules of justice; but it must 
remain the only judge of those rules; and it can 
recognize and provide for no possible case of its own 
coercion or its own restraint. 

The controversy of the age disputes the residence 
of this ultimate sovereignty. 

We maintain that it resides in the mass of every 
nation. A majority has no inherent rights : it 
is an artificial creation: it holds only a delegated 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 25 

power: it is only the instrument provided by the 
previously declared will of the nation for ascertain- 
ing its decision under given circumstances. Its 
power is as much a delegated power as is that of 
any, the most subordinate officer. It may be the 
best or the worst mode of vesting the power : there 
may be decisive reasons why it should always or 
never be declared the criterion of government: but 
still it is never rightfully anything but a form pre- 
scribed, allowed, or acquiesced in, from its conve- 
nience or its expediency, by the nation. It is the 
nation only which is sovereign — whose mere will is 
the final law of all the people — from which there is 
no appeal — and against which there is no remedy — 
within the limits of civil society. The inalienable 
rights of self-defence, beyond, before, and paramount 
to all the rights and obligations of civil society, may 
survive in abeyance, till some irremediable and 
cruel outrage wakes them into activity : but they 
form no part of the apparatus or of the powers of 
civil society. 

The mass of the nation is necessarily somewhat 
indefinite : but each case must be adjusted as it rises. 
One man could not be allowed to impede the will of 
all the rest: nor would a majority of one be any 
ground — except for the provisions of positive law — 
for the control of the other half of society. It is the 
duty of the mere fragments of the nation to yield 
their opposition to the general will : and habits of 
civil and political action, or the sword, will variously 
settle the point of submission. 
4 



26 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

This mass of the nation has the absolute power to 
form its constitution of government. It may be by 
tacit acquiescence, by historical development, by 
formal enactment; but however it may be, it is the 
will of the nation, express or implied, which gives it 
legitimacy. Absolute power in the King may be as 
legitimate as direct legislation by the people, if the 
nation so will it. There are stages of society when 
such is the best, the only possible form of govern- 
ment. It is so over the greater part of the Russian 
Empire. But this form of government may be abro- 
gated by the same will which established it. That 
will is sovereign, and the absolute King is only its 
delegate, wielding the absolute powers of the nation 
against the individuals of the nation, whom it has 
subjected to his will. The King, however absolute 
his power, has no rights against the nation, and 
to assert them is a gross usurpation. This sover- 
eignty has been asserted and exercised by every 
nation. The Czars of Russia have felt its influence 
while denying its right, and tacitly concede its power 
by carefully avoiding any outrage on the national pre- 
judices or the national religion. England has exer- 
cised it; and her Queen now holds her crown by 
that title and no other. France has claimed it; and 
waded knee-deep in blood to maintain it. It is the 
fact of all history — denied by all despots. It is the 
acknowledged basis of the American Republic. 

The despots of Europe have devised a different 
theory — and made it effectual by arms. In the 
attributes of the sovereign power they agree with 
us. But they deny any participation in those attri- 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 27 

butes to the nation : they arrogate them all absolutely 
to the crown. Kings are the plenipotentiaries of 
God — who imparts to them the absolute powers of 
his sovereignty. In his name they rule with abso- 
lute sway his subjects : they are responsible — not to 
the people, not to the nation — but to God, the source 
and giver of their power. Their outrages he may 
punish: but to the people they are visitations of 
providence, inflicted by his ministers, to be regarded 
as judgments on human iniquity, to be submitted to 
with patience, and to be made fruitful of repentance. 
Famine and pestilence are sent to wring contrition 
from the stubborn heart of man. The scourge of a 
merciless ruler should clothe the nation — not in arms 
and rebellion — but in the sackcloth and ashes of 
penitent submission. His power may be exercised 
wisely or unwisely : but that is the fortune or mis- 
fortune of the nation. It has no right to demand a 
change or insist on a security. 

The logical consequences of this theory are no 
idle play of words. They have passed from theory 
into fact, and on bloody fields have been debated 
in arms, and the decisions of victory enforced by 
the scaffold and the chain. Such logical deductions 
are worthy of consideration. 

If monarchs be the plenipotentiaries of God the 
only sovereign, they must be vested solely with all 
the attributes of sovereign power — a will absolute, 
free, irresponsible, and uncontrollable; and the nation 
can have no part of it. The nation is only a sub- 
ject, bound by their will as each citizen of our 
Republic is by the will of the whole. Their will 



28 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

is that of God : it cannot therefore be bound by 
any promises to the people; and any security for 
good government is an outrage on his sovereignty. 
No charter, treaty or constitution can bind them : for 
it is only a law, and that the sovereign power may 
change at will — as our people, their constitution. 
They are likewise absurd: for their purpose is to 
control irresponsible power ; and by the theory that is 
the very idea of their rightful power. The constitu- 
tion is illegal because it assumes a right to bind them. 
To revoke it is no breach of faith — but a legal 
right. The people have no rightful claim to parti- 
cipate in the sovereignty : their demand of a constitu- 
tion is merely an impertinence. No wrong can be 
done them, for the will of the prince inflicting it is 
ipso facto the law : rebellion therefore is pure treason. 
Time gives no sanctity to charters, prescription gives 
no validity: they are only old laws which the prince 
would change. Resistance to their abrogation is an 
illegal restraint on the sovereign's will — to be removed 
by the intervention of his fellow plenipotentiaries. 

Against this system the people of this nineteenth 
century have perversely protested in the name of 
Liberty. The Liberty for which they fight is the 
sovereign power of the nation — the liberty of every 
nation, irrespective of its rulers, to declare by its 
will the forms of its government and the rights and 
duties of its rulers. Against this presumptuous 
claim the despots of Europe for thirty years have 
waged internecine war at home and abroad — inspired 
by the example, supported by the arms, and follow- 
ing the lead of the Russian Czar. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 29 

Other despots have tormented their subjects with 
a more cruel tyranny. Other powers, in the pur- 
suit of empire, over a theatre as vast, and in a spirit 
as merciless, have wielded the scourge of almighty 
wrath. Not a few have displayed as relentless a 
hatred of civil liberty when it lifted his head within 
their dominions. The Czar of all the Russias, first 
among mankind, in this age of the world — has chosen 
the Spirit of Liberty, as the special object of his 
hate — and wages ceaseless and universal war against 
the freedom of mankind. It is no idle fancy, no pass- 
ing caprice, no gust of passion. It is elevated to the 
dignity and pursued with the consistency of a princi- 
ple of policy. It is sustained by the instinct of self- 
preservation, and covered with the holy words of God 
and religion. It is called the cause of peace and 
order against the restless and destructive spirit of 
revolution. He knows no distinction of time, but the 
propitious hour of assault. He knows no distinction 
of place but the reach of a decisive blow. Twenty 
years ago he gave the final stab to Polish freedom. 
Three years ago he stretched bleeding Hungary at 
the feet of the beardless Nero of Austria. He 
bides the time, with the instinct of eternity — when 
his deadly folds may encircle the terrible Albion, 
and the sting of his tail be fixed in the quivering 
corpse of American liberty. 

This is a new thing in the world — it is one of the 
wonders of this age. Its origin and history are rich 
with warning, exhortation and example to the people 
of this Republic. 

Our revolution was the morning gun of freedom. 



30 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

Its echo waked the slumbering millions of France; 
and ere its smoke had melted into air, their arms in 
battle array glittered in her rising sun. 

The Kings of the earth crowded to the rescue of 
their fellow, and buried their rivalries in the grave of 
their common terror. The friends of freedom and 
of the rights of men trembled for her naked youth in 
the shock of battle ; and the breath came freer when 
Dumouriez hurled the Austrian across the frontier 
and vindicated the right of France to rule herself. 
But then — 

France got drunk with blood to vomit crime — 

And fatal hath her saturnalia been 
To freedom's cause in every age and clime. 

That she assailed the partitioners of Poland in the 
midst of their work, with her armed ideas, that her 
propagandist legions flung the flaming torch of free- 
dom into the combustible structure of antique despo- 
tism, is scarcely matter of reproach on this side the 
Atlantic. It is fair to fight the Devil with fire; and 
the champions of the rights of Kings may surely be 
met with the adverse and imprescriptible rights of 
man. But the atrocities of her hour of madness, the 
blood that stained her youthful days combined with 
the rapid flight of her eagles, to confound the prin- 
ciples with the deeds of France. The eternal and 
spiritual truth was weighed down to earth by the 
burthen of her iniquities; and men fled from her 
rapacious triumph as from pestilence and desolation. 
They who struck at her liberties seemed justified by 
her tyrannical encroachments — though they only 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 31 

failed to imitate her excesses without her provocation 
for lack of her power. 

Then one arose who knew how to control the 
whirlwind and to ride the storm. He turned their 
fury into the ministers of his ambition ; and the blast 
of their breath shook or shattered the battlements of 
all the governments of Europe. It was only when 
he gathered their fragments in his mighty grasp and 
hurled them against the despot of the north, that the 
scale of his destiny was hung out on high and the 
hour of his fate was marked on the face of the 
heavens. 

His colossal power crumbled before the finger of 
God. Puny men who had cringed before his frown, 
and been emulous of his favors, boasted themselves 
his conquerors, and sat down to divide the spoils. 

The first coalitions made war on a principle whose 
ethereal essence penetrated their ranks and disarmed 
their hosts — as the wheels of Pharaoh's chariots were 
taken off so that they drave heavily — and they were 
overwhelmed by the flood they sought to control. 
But when the stupendous genius of Napoleon con- 
verted the power of the revolution into the instru- 
ment of his aggrandizement, and his Empire threat- 
ened Europe with universal subjection, the latter 
coalitions took up arms in the name and for the 
defence of national independence. The war was 
waged in the name of the rights of nations — the real 
issue between the Allies and Napoleon was, which 
should have the uncontrolled right to violate them. 
They exemplified and profited by the right of learning 
from an enemy ; and with the aid of a little previous 



32 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

practice they distanced Napoleon in his depredations 
on the integrity of nations. The interests of the 
partitioners controlled the partition — freed from 
every consideration of the interests, the rights, the 
wishes or sympathies, the national history or social 
position of the people to be divided. Their territory 
and themselves were disposed of on mathematical and 
dynamical principles. The categories of number, 
extension, position, and power alone entered into the 
calculation. So many million souls, so many square 
miles of plain or mountain, were assigned to each as 
he could be safely trusted with, or from his service 
in the common fight he was justly entitled to, or 
from their position would serve as a stumbling block 
to French ambition. The suspicion was even 
secretly harbored that his moderate majesty of all 
the Russias might wake up and find himself hungry, 
and dispositions were covertly and delicately arranged 
to protect his accomplices from his voracity. But all 
progressed by arrangements between the people's 
masters and at their expense. Saxony was dismem- 
bered to satiate Prussia. Genoa lost the freedom of 
a thousand years to strengthen Sardinia. Sweden 
was robbed of Finland to round the Russian territory, 
and Denmark was deprived of Norway to indemnify 
Sweden. Belgium and Holland were forced into an 
unnatural union for the benefit of the house of Orange; 
and Italy was parceled out as a residuary fund, for 
equality of partition among the spoilers. The whole 
was effected on the novel principle of law — that 
the constables who catch and confine a thief are 
entitled to divide the stolen goods. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 33 

But there is little satisfaction in governing people 
who are so restless as not to stand still to be 
governed. Twenty-five years of anarchy and blood 
had exemplified the dangers of democratic ambition ; 
and the minds of Kings were impressed with the 
necessity of ruling well if they would rule at all. 
They had been at their wit's ends — nearly over- 
whelmed by the waves, their hearts failing them for 
fear ; and in the hour of their helpless need God and 
their people had mercifully rescued them. Men 
who escaped shipwreck in heathen times hung up 
votive offerings in the temples; and the church 
appoints prayers and thanksgiving for such deliver- 
ance. It was natural, it was only in accordance with 
their royal exaltation, akin to divine excellence, that 
these rulers of men should acknowledge their indebt- 
edness to God and their people. They had probably 
prayed with lusty devotion to the former, as it is 
certain they had promised largely to the latter. 
They had learned at Jena and Austerlitz the indiffer- 
ence of their people to the sentiment of loyalty to 
masters who were indifferent to every thing but the 
right to rule them. They could recover their crowns 
only by the aid, the devotion, the affection of their 
people. The world had gone beyond the day when 
it was a coveted honor to die for one's prince. Men 
now preferred to live for themselves; and if they 
must die, they chose it should happen on some more 
important point than a choice of masters. 

These rulers had seen the resistless power of free 
principles in the hands of him whose mission it was 
to plague the Pharaohs of the earth: and they 
5 



34 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

caused their wise men with their rods to emulate 
his wonders. 

They repented them of their misdeeds, and 
brought forth fruit meet for repentance. They 
alleviated the burthens and bettered the social con- 
dition of their people. They lightened the weight 
and removed the barriers of aristocratic privilege. 
They proclaimed liberty to the captive and bid the 
serf go free. They seized the terrible pen and 
freely invoked its magic art in the cause of Kings. 
They preached the rights of men and nations. 
They anticipated and outstript the longings of their 
subjects for a voice in their own affairs: and 
solemnly, with the earnestness of men in deep agony, 
with reiterated oaths, in the presence of the Most 
High, they promised to their people representative 
assemblies and the freedom of speech and of the 
press. 

The royal word — strange to say — was once not a 
polite circumlocution for a lie. It was a recognized 
coin, of loyal stamp and ready circulation, but cheaply 
made — and which frequent adulterations and not 
infrequent bankruptcy has sadly depreciated. Even 
the addition of a royal oath does not now avail to 
restore its credit. But then it was not so. Kings 
had been subjected to the trials of other mortals. 
Vicissitudes of fate or fortune had pulled them down 
and put them up with a variable caprice richly in- 
structive. They had felt the scourge of a power 
above them — before whose presence they had fled 
amain. They had learned to appreciate the sympa- 
thies, to value the love, to long for the devotion of 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 35 

the people; and they had half learned that people 
were more interested in themselves than even in 
the persons of their divinely appointed rulers. 

The devotion to princes and to venerable au- 
thority had been swept away by the tornado of 
French conquest. This generation had grown up 
under other auspices, and felt the instincts of free- 
men. They listened to the appeal of patriotism 
against the stranger and believed the solemn pro- 
mises of their rulers: and with the enthusiasm of 
the early French republic, they met and overthrew 
the later French despotism. 

The Kings held the fruits of their promises. It 
remained to perform them. They redeemed their 
pledge on the 26th of September, 1815, by — the 
Treaty of the Holy Alliance. Its language is 
obscure and of doubtful import: but read by the 
light of history it was — a scandalous conspiracy 
against the liberties of mankind. It is not the only 
case where religious mysticism has blended with the 
suggestions of ambition to cover with the veil of 
piety deeds, which, naked, would shock the con- 
science and meet the execration of mankind. 

It would seem from the account of Alexander, 
that the defeats of Lutzen, Dresden and Bautzen, 
impressed on the minds of the sovereigns their 
impotency before the terrible Emperor of the 
French: and drove them with new fervor to seek 
aid at the throne of grace. With their faces to the 
east — and their backs to the French — they vowed — 
as better men have done — to ascribe any success 
which might be vouchsafed to them, to God as its 



36 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

author. Then followed the victories of Kulm, 
Hotzbach and Leipsic — the fruits of their pious 
vow. They remembered at Paris the promises of 
their weakness ; and how could they offer a sacrifice 
more pleasing to the God of Peace, than to conse- 
crate to its preservation the power he had bestowed 
on them. "The Redeemer," says Alexander, "in- 
spired every thought comprised in the alliance — all 
the principles it announces. It is not our work — it 
is God's." 

It was not unnatural that those on whom the 
divine rights of sovereignty had been poured should 
be illumined by light from above on their limits, 
nature, and purpose. It was quite natural that 
Princes so recently terrified by the stupendous arma- 
ments of Napoleon, should unite in deprecating their 
revival, and blessing the peace which smiled in their 
absence. Nor is it at all surprising that the grateful 
pacificators of the world should feel especial horror 
at those breaches of the peace which involved the 
guilt of rebellion against the vicegerents of the God 
who had given them the victory. Against such dis- 
turbers of the peace of the world, it was their 
peculiar duty to protest, and if necessary, to arm. 
They could never for a moment harbor the thought 
of oppression emanating from themselves: and in 
the absence of oppression, rebellion was in their 
eyes, the unpardonable sin. Patience was the only 
virtue which the supposition of injustice could be 
allowed to cultivate. Rights in their subjects to 
participate in the sovereignty of the state were pre- 
sumptuous thoughts not to be entertained — un- 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 37 

founded in any principle — and incompatible with 
the "conservative principle of social order." To 
assert them therefore was the grossest compound of 
treason and sacrilege. To attempt to wrest them 
from the rulers by force — was the worst violation of 
the peace of God they were commissioned to re- 
store. They intended to govern well and wisely: 
and that was all which reasonable people could 
expect. They looked gratefully to heaven in the 
day of their triumph, and from the fulness of their 
hearts they poured out the divine oracle which 
assumed the form of the Holy Treaty. The whole 
circle of royal duties was comprised in the symboli- 
cal trinity which composed the treaty — the high 
duties of ruling according to the Christian religion — 
of preserving the brotherhood among sovereigns — 
and of confessing themselves the plenipotentiaries 
only of God in their exalted functions. If they were 
the plenipotentiaries of God, his religion was pro- 
perly their rule of governing his people — and brother- 
hood was of all the most imperative duty. Surely 
none but a stiff-necked and turbulent people would 
lift the hand in defiance of such rule, by such rulers; 
and whoever did so — was only fit to be cut in 
pieces ! ! 

Their sacred majesties therefore renewed the 
broken chain from heaven to the throne : and as if 
half conscious of the frailty of royal resolutions for 
good, they surrounded themselves with the sanctions 
of that famous treaty. Men were glad to learn by 
its first article, that they " had formed the unchanged 
able resolution to take the precepts of the Christian 



38 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

religion as their sole rule of action as well in the 
government of their several states as in their foreign 
relations." 

This resolution was matter of great interest to 
those destined to taste the blessings of their rule : 
for they hoped so solemn a recognition and pledge 
would dispel from the future the distressing doubts 
which obscured the conformity of their previous 
conduct to those holy precepts; and that was felt to 
be the more important, since, if Christian principles 
were to be the only rules of government, it was felt 
that constitutional restraints were necessarily ex- 
cluded. 

The three Princes further promised — "in accord- 
ance with the words of Holy Writ which requires 
that all men should look on each other as brethren — 
to remain united by the bonds of a true and indisso- 
luble brotherhood and as brethren to afford help and 
countenance on every occasion." Sweeping as is this 
provision, guaranteeing all that the former and latter 
contain, the most skeptical of the faith of Kings 
cannot fail to confess its honorable fulfilment. 

And lastly they engaged "that the states over 
which they ruled, Russia, Austria and Prussia, 
should in future form only three branches of one 
and the same Christian kingdom — which recognize 
no other ruler than the Most High to whom all might 
belongs, as whose plenipotentiaries the allied monarchs 
regarded themselves." 

This clause is the formal announcement of the 
divine right of Kings. It is the most emphatic 
exclusion of the rights of the people. It is the 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 39 

assertion of infinite and absolute power in the 
monarch, — guaranteed by more than a million bayo- 
nets ! ! 

This singular treaty contains the history of the 
last thirty-five years of the contracting parties. It 
reveals the foundations of their political system at 
home and abroad. We are not at liberty with Lord 
Castlereagh to treat it as a harmless joke. The men 
who made it were in no merry mood. They had no 
idle time on their hands. They had put in motion 
and led to victory the mightiest armament the world 
had ever seen. They were men of practical views : 
and professed to be protecting themselves for the 
future from the evils of the past. These evils were 
the assertion of the sovereign rights of the nation 
against the sovereign right claimed for the King. 
The latter was designated the cause of order — and 
was that of the allies. The former was the cause of 
the revolution, which they had armed to overthrow, 
and now were forming a treaty to suppress. That 
treaty may mean more than it says — but it cannot 
mean less. It has been fertile of great events, and 
powerful in marshaling great armies to do deadly 
work : and history has confirmed its most pregnant 
interpretation. 

Its first clause may express the resolution of its 
authors to observe in their internal and external 
relations the precepts of Christianity : but it ex- 
pressly says they are the only rule they will observe. 
They alone are to guide their conduct. Under that 
principle they may rule mildly and justly and 
wisely; but they must rule absolutely, free from all 



40 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

control of human constitutions. It defines the law 
of their conduct; and they proclaim it the only law 
by which they will be controlled, whether in their 
internal or their external affairs. 

It is unfortunate that the precepts of Christianity 
have been declared the common law of monarchs of 
the absolute school with a unanimity as singular as 
the variety of deeds they have been made to sanction. 
The great Armada sailed upon a Christian mission ; 
and Alva was on Christian duty in the Netherlands. 
The repeal of the edict of Nantes was Christian legis- 
lation; and the Church still celebrates the day of St. 
Bartholomew. The Holy Office of the Inquisition 
was the authorized administrator of Christian justice; 
and the Society of Jesus has combined with its 
secular duties distinguished success in the cultivation 
of Christian morals. On which of these models the 
Holy Allies meant to mould their conduct it would 
not have been fair or easy to divine beforehand : but 
any or all of them were in the line of safe precedents; 
and the conservative motto of their chancery is stare 
decisis. Subsequent events seem to establish 
obedience to rulers as the only precept they very 
stringently enforced; and who only were rulers 
within the meaning of the treaty, the last clause dis- 
tinctly defines. 

Their political catechism has borrowed the preg- 
nant brevity of their neighbor the Turk. " God is 
the only God — and Allah is his prophet" is the sum of 
the rights and duties of the Turk; and the Christian 
King recognizes for his dominions no other ruler than 
the Most High — whose ambassador he is on earth. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 41 

This is the most precise announcement of the right 
divine and exclusive, I remember to have seen. It 
seats the sovereignty not in the people, not in the 
nation, whether with or without the King. They 
have no relation to it save that of subordination and 
obedience. The King is alone supreme. The 
responsibility of the ambassador is to his sovereign. 
The only right of the subject is prayer to God for 
relief or for vengeance or for patience. 

But this pregnant principle has been evolved into 
the most logical system. All concede that the sover- 
eign power cannot bind its own discretion. Parlia- 
ment cannot pass an irrepealable act. We think the 
people cannot bind themselves not to change their 
constitution. We may adopt a monarchy to-day, a 
republic to-morrow ; and no one can impeach our 
caprice or our discretion. 

If the King be sovereign, he is equally uncontrolla- 
ble. He can make no bargain with his people — for 
the idea of sovereignty is the right to bind and speak 
for the people. They are not a party capable of con- 
tracting with the sovereign power — for its very defini- 
tion is, the power of binding them — and its first and 
most inherent and inseparable attribute is freedom of 
will absolute and uncontrollable. 

When therefore the Holy Alliance affirms its 
authors to be the plenipotentiaries of the Most High, 
the only sovereign — they mean to divest themselves 
of the possibility of burdening themselves by any 
concession, by any constitution, by any charter of 
privileges. Any that they may grant must be at their 
will, during their pleasure, of grace and not of right. 
6 



42 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

Its violation is the legal repeal of its provisions. Its 
abrogation is only the withdrawal of a favor. The 
oath of conformity is only a mental vow. The 
treaty is the simple, absolute, comprehensive an- 
nouncement of the very principle which the revo- 
lution had assailed — formally laid down as the foun- 
dation of the public law of Europe and of the world. 
To charge a King with perjury to his people, is 
senseless. To cut off the head of Charles I. because 
they could not tie his hands was a gross iniquity in 
his people. To take up arms against an oppressor, 
is to impeach the wisdom and fly in the face of the 
sovereignty of God. To force on a monarch the 
adoption or the observance of a Constitution against 
his free will — is a clear rebellion — of dangerous 
example — and fit to be repressed by military inter- 
vention. These consequences are not the taunts of a 
foe nor the extravagances of an enthusiast. They 
are the fruits of a calm logic, applied to the plain 
words of the treaty. The history of the acts of these 
sovereigns for thirty-five years is one continued con- 
firmation of these views. They have been embodied 
in a catechism of political philosophy for the instruc- 
tion of the youthful mind in the dominions of a satellite 
of the Czar, and are elevated to a place beside the 
articles of the Christian belief. 

The first clause of the treaty declares the rule of 
government ; the last, the person and tenure of the 
ruler. The middle one contains the promise of per- 
petual brotherhood between the Jlllies, and of help and 
countenance on every occasion. This is the formal 
and mutual guaranty of each and the perpetual 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 43 

alliance of all, for the maintenance of the right of 
Kings to rule according to the precepts of Christianity. 
Their brotherhood is to be perpetual, the duty to 
help and countenance is universal, and the three 
Empires are thenceforth to be, for those purposes, 
only branches of one. Such were the formal stipula- 
tions of the treaty. 

The King is to the nation what God is to the 
world. To him belongs might, majesty and domin- 
ion. To them pertain patience, gratitude and sub- 
mission. Whatsoever is more than this cometh of 
evil : and its suppression is guaranteed by the treaty. 
This was the theory of the allies. 

With this treaty in our hand let us open the 
history of Europe. 

In the distribution of soil and souls, the Congress 
of Vienna was not forgetful of the cause of their 
trouble. The ghost of the revolution still stood 
before them, and they tremble at the apparition. 
They set a guard over maniac France ; and distrust- 
ful of the competency of its keeper as well as of the 
completeness of the cure, they stipulated in their 
treaty an alliance to suppress the first manifestation 
of returning madness, whether apparent in symptoms 
of external mischief or internal aberration. 

The Austrian Empire of agglomerated nationali- 
ties was at best a crazy structure, rife with the 
elements of ruin, and difficult to maintain even in 
calm and peaceful times. The whirlwind of revolu- 
tionary violence would instantly prostrate it. The 
fire of popular passion would involve in ruinous con- 
flagration its dry and lifeless branches. The inspira- 



44 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

tions of modern reform, the allurements of popular 
sovereignty must bring the necessity and reveal the 
impossibility of uniting under one rule its various 
and adverse nations languages and laws. The very 
condition of its existence was repose. Its only unity 
was in its Imperial head. The instinct of his 
ambition made him the foe of freedom : and his 
policy not less than his principles deprecated the 
contagion of popular ideas — with which he was not 
in a condition to deal successfully or safely. His 
Russian brother's unimprovable people were safe 
neighbors on one side. The unchangeable unity of 
the Papal principles secured him from danger 
through the States of the Church on an other. But 
he anxiously guarded his Italian provinces from the 
dangerous example of freedom by solemn but secret 
treaties with Sardinia and Naples to repress all con- 
stitutional advance among their people — till he should 
be ready to take up the march of improvement. 
Against the perverse liberalism of Prussia, on the 
side of Germany, he was forced to rely on his own 
dead weight in her affairs ; and he trusted to the 
unerring instinct and sympathies of despotic princes, 
to annul the ambiguous stipulations of the Federation. 
The jealousy of Western Europe, unable to wrest 
Poland from the Czar, strove to prevent the consoli- 
dation of its provinces with his empire. They 
demanded, and Alexander accorded with seeming 
alacrity, a constitution providing a national adminis- 
tration and a separate army; and the shadow of 
Polish nationality was preserved by a separate coro- 
nation as King of Poland. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 45 

Alexander reciprocated the favor, and joined Prus- 
sia in forcing on the reluctant Austria some ambigu- 
ous provisions for free institutions for Germany. A 
substantial provision for representative assemblies 
was frittered away, by the perverse opposition of 
petty princes, and the lukewarm support of its pro- 
posers, into the illusory declaration, " That Assem- 
blies of States will find place in all the countries of 
the Federation." The freedom of the press — whose 
alliance they had eagerly sought to arouse the great 
enthusiasm of the war of liberation, — was committed 
to the tender regard of a Diet of Princes against 
whom only it needed protection, with no better 
shield than the provision that, "at its first meeting 
the Diet will occupy itself with uniform legislation 
concerning the freedom of the press." 

All these provisions stipulations and arrangements 
formed integral parts of the general settlement. The 
violation of any entitled all the powers to interfere. 

The labor of the sovereigns was finished ; and 
each returned to his several home to put in opera- 
tion the complex machine. 

The Holy Allies, a few years after — in 1818, met 
at Aix la Chapelle to consider the propriety of loos- 
ing France from her straight-jacket. Her sanity was 
pronounced sufficiently restored, at least under the 
guardianship of a legitimate King; and she was at 
once relieved of the restraint of their armies, and 
admitted to the alliance which dictated laws to the 
world. On this accession to their number, and at 
this solemn conclusion of the first act in the drama, 
they wisely resolved to renew the declaration of the 



46 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

principles and to reduce to some certainty the objects 
of the association. It was therefore solemnly 
declared by Russia, Austria, England, Prussia and 
France, that they as well in their reciprocal relations 
as in those with the other European powers, were 
resolved never to depart from the principles of unity 
which had hitherto guarded them and which through 
the Christian brotherhood of sovereigns among each 
other would be indissoluble ; that this union had no 
other object than to preserve the common peace, 
which depends on the conscientious observance of 
treaty stipulations and the rights flowing from them ; 
that France reconciled to the other powers by the 
restoration of legitimate constitutional monarchy bound 
herself to contribute to the maintenance and con- 
solidation of the system which had given peace to 
Europe, and was its only guarantee ; and that the 
parties to the act, so far as they might find future 
conferences between the sovereigns or their plenipo- 
tentiaries for the attainment of their expressed pur- 
poses, bound themselves by diplomatic arrangements 
to settle the time and place of meeting ; and formally 
to solicit the presence of any state whose concerns 
were to be the subjects of consideration. 

The castigation of France had brought forth the 
peaceful fruits of repentance. But the joy over her 
conversion was clouded by the sullen temper and 
restless spirit of Germany. Three years had 
taught the Princes the meaning and the people the 
value of the lavish promises of popular assemblies, of 
freedom of the press, of liberal reforms, by which 
they had been lured into the war of liberation. 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 47 

It was the idea of liberty, of the participation of the 
people in the high attributes of government, which 
was invoked by the Princes as alone powerful for 
their rescue. In its power they conquered ; and the 
people fought under the illusion that their victory 
was their own. The promises of the Princes were 
interpreted in that sense; and in that sense was their 
performance exacted. 

About the language of the promises there could not 
well be much dispute. The difficulty was in the 
consequences they were found to involve. The 
monarchs had said they knew not what; when their 
eyes were opened they drew back with terror from 
the gulf which yawned before them. 

The Congress of Vienna began and ended with 
the affirmation of the divine right of Kings. The 
abandonment of absolute power by the monarch 
was never for a moment dreamed of. Yet the 
King of Prussia, and the Russian autocrat, and a 
crowd of minor Princes, professed their willingness, 
and even their anxiety to secure to their people such 
popular privileges, such liberal reforms, such free- 
dom of speech and participation in domestic legisla- 
tion as might be suitable to their various degrees of 
intelligence and civilization. It never for a moment 
occurred to them, though it did to their more prac- 
tical and logical advisers — that such things were in 
fact and in principle absolutely inconsistent with 
despotic and unlimited power ; that the two could 
not dwell together in unity or in peace. 

The Kings and Autocrats reasoned with the 
ordinary strength of royal minds — like children pur- 
suing their fancies as facts of history. 



48 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

Freedom of speech should be granted in their 
Arcadian groves : — but it must always behave itself 
modestly. Philosophy should flourish and the press 
be free ; but it was never contemplated that their licen- 
tiousness should freely canvass the policy, dispute 
the pretensions, criticise the acts, impeach the faith 
or hasten the performance of the promises of the 
Princes. They contemplated a press which should 
signalize its freedom in defence of their policy, in 
adoration of their power, in proclaiming the right 
divine, in adulation, in obsequiousness, in dutiful 
submission. 

Representative assemblies were to find a place in 
their Utopia ; but it was never contemplated that they 
should fill a large place. They were to be vested 
with powers which they were not to wield. They 
were to sit at the feet of the throne — mild, docile, 
submissive — ready sources of taxation, and faithfully 
representing the popular submission to the royal 
will. That they could ever presume to intermeddle 
in the control of affairs against his will, much less to 
assert or assume any part in the powers of sover- 
eignty was never for a moment dreamed of. Repre- 
sentative assemblies in the royal contemplation were 
to be quiet and meek aids in the conduct of the govern- 
ment — faithful supports of the Prince. For them to 
oppose his measures, deny him money, demand in 
the name of the nation, — his sovereign and theirs — 
the redress of grievances — would annul their exclu- 
sive pretensions and reduce to a shadow the right 
divine of the Lord's anointed. It was the inspiration 
of the revolutionary devil playing his infernal devices 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 49 

for the overthrow of social order ; and such an as- 
sembly could be dealt with only as one possessed with 
unclean spirits which ought to be cast out. 

It cost four years of experience to convince them of 
their folly; and for thirty years they have consis- 
tently repented of it. They learned that participa- 
tion in the forms of government inspired the idea of 
popular sovereignty : that every concession was a 
restriction of their own power, and only renewed 
demands whose refusal roused discontent into passion 
and threatened to blow the smouldering elements 
into open conflagration. They learned that there 
could be no union between despotism and freedom, 
that each excluded the other ; and that the acknow- 
ledgment of any right, of any freedom of thought, of 
speech, or of the press, involved the demand and com- 
pelled the concession of everything. There was no 
middle ground between the absolute power of the 
King and the full participation of the people in the 
attributes of sovereignty. The latter they never 
meant to grant and were resolved not to yield. — 
They felt that safety and consistency were insepara- 
ble. Every popular right, all freedom of spirit must 
be denied or else they must submit to the restraints 
of constitutional governments. They therefore like 
consistent men made their election : and set to work 
to circumscribe or to destroy that freedom of speech 
and of the press, and those assemblies of the states 
whose only use was to urge an issue they were 
anxious to avoid, to wring concessions they were 
resolved not to grant. What they had supposed a 
temporary madness of revolutionary France was now | 



50 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

found to be the essential attribute of popular sover- 
eignty. It was the very plague spot of the revolution, 
and justified the delegates of God in waging war by 
force or guile for his power against the mind of man. 

It was the fortune of Germany to develope this 
truth and the purpose of the Congress of Laybach 
to act on it. The treaty of Vienna — which declared 
that " the States of Germany should be independent 
and united by a federal league " — made her a minia- 
ture of Europe. Two military monarchies occupied 
the extremes of her territory : and controlled through 
a Diet of all the Princes, the affairs of the crowd of 
intermediate States, whose insignificant size did not 
prevent their being dangerous neighbors to States of 
common language, feelings and history, despotic in 
form, yet struggling to be free. The Diet was to 
Germany what the Holy Alliance was to Europe. 

The sovereigns dispersed from Vienna and went 
on their way rejoicing in the prospect of a golden 
age of patriarchal rule and child-like submission, 
which they had introduced. The iniquities before 
the flood were obliterated. The arch-fiend was 
bound and banished. They fondly hoped the 
troubled waters would subside into repose. 

But the breath of liberty had stirred the stagnant 
waters of every land. The Princes of Germany 
themselves had been the propagandists. They had 
evoked a power which they had used but could not 
get rid of. They had called up a spirit which they 
could not lay. 

Men's minds did not sink to sleep with the return 
of peace. They had acquired independence. They 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 51 

had been promised freedom. They turned to their 
Princes for the performance of their promises. But 
the storm had passed, the sky was clear, they stood 
erect and lofty, surrounded with glittering armies 
and secure of their devotion. The humbled spirit 
rose to its former pride. One of their cousins of 
ancient date and wide dominion had bewailed the 
evanescence of royal vows wrung forth in distress; 
and his successors lived to prove the truth of his 
bitter exclamation — 

" How soon 
Would highth recall high thoughts — how soon unsay 
What feigned submission swore — ease would recant 
Vows made in pain as violent and void!" 

They set themselves diligently to work under 
pretext of performance, to revoke, annul and evade 
them — as the dangers of the concessions became 
apparent. 

The King of Prussia, besides many valuable ad- 
ministrative improvements — even during the war 
convoked a provisional assembly to adjust his taxes 
and aid his reforms. But despotic power is unsocia- 
ble, and popular presumption is impracticable: and 
the assembly was dissolved without the regrets of 
King or People. In 1816, the provincial assemblies 
were charged with the election of delegates to a 
general parliament, and a commission was created for 
the construction of a constitution. But unexpected 
difficulties beset the union of the provinces. The 
King seemed to weary of his task or repent him of 
his promise. The commission was adjourned for 



52 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

further inquiry ; and ere it could meet again a change 
had come over the spirit of the King. The people 
presumed to claim as a right what was intended as a 
favor. The tone of public discussion had assumed 
an unpalatable independence. The King became 
impressed with the incompatibility of despotic power 
with guarantees against its exercise — and shrank from 
his promises at such a cost. He was fertile in post- 
ponements. His ministers were always prosecuting 
with endless labor an impossible work. Some of his 
people ventured to present an urgent remonstrance 
after the delay had extended to 1818. It provoked 
the royal anger that his people should dare to antici- 
pate the time which he should hold fit for the con- 
cession of a constitution : and they were admonished 
that to remind a King of his promises implied a 
doubt of his royal word. He repelled the imputa- 
tion — by proving its truth. The assembly of States 
failed to find a place in the dominions of the liberal 
King of Prussia — and at the conferences of Carlsbad 
his ministers were still prosecuting their Penelopean 
labors ! ! — These delays are the type of them all. 
In some of the States the issue was different — but 
only after long struggles. Baden in 1817, and Bava- 
ria in 1818, obtained satisfactory assemblies and con- 
stitutions; but in the former they were wrung from 
the reluctant Duke by the hostile claims of Bavaria 
which drove him to seek refuge in the affections of 
his people; and the same necessity for cordial sup- 
port induced the despot of Bavaria to nerve the 
heart of his people for his depredation on Baden. 
Both the King of Wurtemburg and the Grand Duke 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 53 

of Baden — trembling for the integrity of their mosaic 
dominions at the hands of the Congress, sought to 
buy the affections of their subjects by the tender of 
constitutions ; but the niggardly offer filled them with 
disgust. Bickerings and higglings consumed the 
time till the danger was passed ; and with it fled the 
only inducements to conciliation. A renewal of 
difficulty in one case, a change of sovereign in the 
other, finally brought about the wished for agreement. 
In Saxony, in Brunswick, and in many other States 
the assemblies never found a place. In Hesse 
Darmstadt they were conceded after a five years con- 
flict. In Saxe Weimar alone, — the home of Goethe, 
whose Grand Duke was the protector of Schiller, 
Wieland and Herder — did constitutional freedom 
find a welcome home, and the spirit of man a free 
press. These liberal concessions followed swiftly on 
the peace, and they were fully and honestly main- 
tained by their author. But he and they had 
fallen on evil days. Freedom is of bad example to 
neighboring despotisms : and the constitution and free 
press of Saxe Weimar attracted the attention, roused 
the fears, and finally called down the anathemas of 
Austria and Prussia, as inimical to the existing 
order. 

This state of deferred expectation, of delayed 
promise, of earnest entreaty and cold refusal or illu- 
sory performance, would in ordinary times have tried 
the patience of the quietest people. But these were 
not ordinary times, nor this a quiet people. The 
minds of men were on fire and royal propagandists 
had blown the flame into fury. They made Germany 



54 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

too hot for Napoleon and they could not cool it for 
themselves. The spirit of the restless people broke 
out in the Universities, in the Gymnasia, in public 
celebrations, in the public press — wherever it could 
find a tongue. The patriotic ferment of the war of 
liberation worked in the minds of the people. The 
impetus then given to free ideas had not spent but 
augmented itself. It was fast verging towards a 
popular demand for a full share of the sovereignty — 
with all the inherent vigor, and the irrepressible 
strength of the idea of liberty. It was apparent that 
no subordinate place at the foot of the throne would 
satisfy its aspirations. Every day developed the 
absolute, direct, and irreconcilable hostility between 
the sovereignty of the monarch and of the people. 
The two spirits which had stood in battle array for 
twenty years were again face to face : and the 
monarchs were driven to suppress a clamor they 
would not gratify and could not quiet. The eloquent 
appeals of Gorres in Westphalia against the French 
were continued after their expulsion, in behalf of 
national rights, liberal laws, and free and powerful 
assemblies for the people. But there was a vast 
difference between a free press for the King's cause, 
and a free press exacting popular rights at his hands. 
This latter was dangerous to the " existing order :" 
and the Rhenish Mercury was first subjected to the 
gag of a censor in July, 1815 — and because it would 
still mutter between its teeth, a few months later, it 
was suppressed. 

After the humiliating day of Jena and the treaty 
of Tilsit, even women united in the effort to rouse 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 55 

and reform the nerveless people. Queen Louise and 
Von Stein were among the founders of the Tugend- 
bund. It united the first, most liberal, most able 
and learned men of Germany in the glorious cause of 
waking the national spirit and reforming the abuses 
which paralyzed its power. Schleiermacher, Nie- 
buhr, Humboldt, Jahn and other illustrious men 
strove in its ranks and inspired its deeds. ' By its 
influence, at its popular appeal, under its promises, 
the nation arose and became strong. Their exer- 
tions in the national cause continued only the same 
exhortations after the peace as before. It was 
scarcely to be anticipated that success should cool 
their patriotism, or that after having won a title to 
free institutions they should sit down quietly under 
the refusal of them : still less can we blame their 
impatience at the hostility of the authors and 
founders of their association to the persecution of 
their cause. The national regeneration progressed 
in every department with free and rapid strides and 
not without the usual qpncomitants of exaggerated 
sentiment and exorbitant demands. Jahn had 
sought to free the nation from foreign ideas and 
imitation, by infusing into the youth through the 
influence of his gymnasia, simple habits, earnest ideas, 
national feelings. The holy ideas of liberty were 
nourished by the solemnization of the days of victory 
of the war of liberation — when the eye was lifted 
beyond the confines of a single state to the majesty of 
united Germany. The spirit of reform, the conta- 
gion of liberal ideas seized on the Universities, 
especially that of Jena. The Burschenschaften were 



56 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

formed to promote the revolution of national educa- 
tion and habits : and free ideas were their natural 
allies. Religion mingled with the rolling current 
and the advocates of one reformation looked back 
with kindred feelings to the days of another — the 
pioneer in the paths of modern improvement. The 
students of Jena celebrated on the Wartburg the 
anniversary of the reformation, and breathed the very 
spirit of Luther on the scene of his residence. 
Patriotic speeches full of enthusiasm for home and 
country rang over the land : and the tones woke a 
responsive echo in many a longing heart. But to 
speak of freedom in the hearing of a master is an 
impeachment of his rights. The celebration was 
reported as a reappearance of the devil on the 
Wartburg. Solemn statesmen had been ridiculed; 
and they felt sore at the jokes on their incompetency. 
It was treated as a formal conspiracy. Diplomatic 
notes were interchanged. The Duke of Saxe 
Weimar met the urgent remonstrances of Prussia 
and Austria. Their ambassadors visited the spot to 
investigate the events and to track the conspiracy. 
Unfortunately Kotzebue resided there ; his reports 
to his imperial master Alexander were suspected as 
those of a spy. One was intercepted, published, 
commented on with bitterness. He sought protection 
of his master ; audacity of the press and the enthu- 
siasm of the students were condemned as dangerous : 
and the menacing tone of the Duke's despotic neigh- 
bors compelled in 1818 the silencing of the press. 

These events excited the fear of the sovereigns 
then united at Aix la Chapelle; a communication 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 57 

was addressed to Alexander commenting on the 
pertinacious striving after new constitutions, by 
which the legitimate authority of Kings, the gift of 
God, was brought to naught, and pointing to the free 
ideas afloat at the Universities, and the audacious 
freedom of the press as the sources of the difficulty. 

This address made a deep impression on his 
Imperial Majesty. Secret negotiations passed on the 
subject, and their fruits were apparent the following 
year at Carlsbad. 

In the midst of this ferment of minds a half mad 
enthusiast — impressed with the idea that Kotzebue 
was a spy and a foe to his fatherland — sought him 
out and murdered him. The deed was condemned ; 
but the sentiment which prompted it met the sympa- 
thy of thousands. The perpetrator was wept as a 
hero and a martyr. The excitement was doubled by 
a similar attempt on the life of Ibell. The populace 
caught the passion and exhausted their fury on the 
unoffending and defenceless Jews from one end of 
Germany to the other. The crisis of a revolution 
was fast approaching. The time was at hand when 
free institutions, free assemblies, freedom of speech 
and of the press must be granted, or the voice of 
clamor must be silenced by the sword. To yield to 
those demands — to permit the freedom of discussion 
on the borders of Austria and Prussia necessarily 
involved them in the concessions ; or the refusal left 
them only the alternative of civil war. Neither was 
content to yield constitutions. Both felt their incom- 
patibility with the unity of either Empire, with the 
integrity of the royal authority, with the divine idea 
8 



58 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

of the King, with the existence of the precepts of 
Christianity as the only rule of conduct. Metternich 
and the Prussian minister sympathized in these views. 
They concurred in devising a scheme to protect 
themselves by the suppression of freedom in the 
neighboring states — equally free and independent as 
their own: and the chief powers of Germany were 
invited to a conference at Carlsbad to settle and 
sanction the details. 

The interest of all the Princes of Germany was 
alike. All feared the further progress of free prin- 
ciples. All professed to believe in an impending 
rebellion, an unreasonable discontent, a disorganizing 
spirit — the offspring of some deep and hidden con- 
spiracy. Its traces could never be found, but every 
symptom of discontent, every expression of ardent 
devotion to free institutions, every disorder of any 
sort, was arbitrarily ascribed to such a conspiracy. 
All the Princes were interested in having an external 
guarantee against their subjects, and were willing to 
buy the benefit at the expense of the freedom of 
their governments. The restraint was only on their 
people; and they eagerly submitted to it. They felt 
the advance of the rising flood and earnestly joined 
in erecting the requisite barrier against its ravages. 

The Conference of Carlsbad was thus a conspiracy 
among the crowned heads of Germany, led on and 
instigated by Prussia and Austria, each to suppress 
free institutions and free discussion in the dominions 
of his neighbors for the security of his own. It was 
the first trial, among the States of Germany, of the 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 59 

principles devised by the Allies for the subjugation 
of Europe. 

The results of the conferences were announced in 
the address of Buol-Schauenstein, President of the 
Austrian delegation, on the 20th September, 1819, 
to the Diet at Frankfort. The scheme devised was 
to explain away the liberal provisions of the articles 
of federation : and by construction to expand and 
strengthen the powers of the Diet so as to vest that 
body with a right of interference in the private and 
internal affairs of every State, in spite of its constitu- 
tional independence. To these arrangements the 
assent of the respective rulers was to be obtained in 
consideration of the security each derived for his 
despotic power against the clamors of his people; 
and the Diet was asked to invest them with the 
sanctions and the forms of law. 

The address of the Austrian delegate is the resolu- 
tion of the Carlsbad Conference. From it we learn 
that the disquiet of men's minds flowed from the 
indefiniteness of the article of confederation relative 
to the Assemblies of States; that under that term 
nothing more was to be understood than the old 
Estates which had always existed in Germany; that 
no one dreamt of founding any such thing as a popu- 
lar participation in the sovereignty, which was incon- 
sistent with the existence of monarchy; and that 
further steps in that direction should be arrested 
till the Diet could define the meaning of the article. 
In other words, the monarchs had discovered that 
their power was indivisible ; a surrender of any 
involved danger to all. 



60 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

The next suggestion revealed the device to control 
the development of each State by the power of the 
whole. It consisted in claiming for the Diet the 
right by construction to guarantee not only the out- 
ward independence and integrity of the several States 
but also the maintenance of the legally existing order 
within. 

The licentious spirit of the press was accused of 
having shaken the faith of men in things established 
by its malignant or seductive coloring; to it was 
ascribed the prevailing conspiracy for the overthrow 
of social order — which like a disembodied spirit per- 
vaded the air but could never be fixed in a place or 
a person; and the address with far-sighted policy 
struck. at the root of the evil by denouncing the 
liberal notions infused into the minds of youth by the 
professors as fallacious dreams exciting to madness 
and ending in ruin. 

These views were followed up by appropriate acts 
or decrees, adopted unanimously and without opposi- 
tion or discussion — bartering away the rights of 
nations for the security of their Princes. 

The confederation obtained — under the forms of 
an interpretation — the right to coerce any State or the 
people of any State to perform their federal duties. 
Commissioners were appointed to watch over the 
spirit of the instructions administered to the students 
at the Universities, and to remove professors of dan- 
gerous principles. The press was bound hand and 
foot: no paper of less than twenty pages could 
appear anywhere unless specially authorized : and 
on complaint of any State the commissioners could 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 61 

suppress any licensed publication which tended to 
disturb the safety, peace and quiet of any German 
State. Sweeping powers were given for the sup- 
pression of conspiracies, under pretext of the neces- 
sity of the impending crisis. 

These were all blows aimed at the internal devel- 
opment of the independent States, for the preserva- 
tion of despotic authority in Germany, and chiefly 
for the benefit of Prussia and Austria. 

Prince Metternich had not yet attained his object. 

He summoned the chief powers of Germany to 
Vienna in the latter part of the same year. In 
January, 1820, they dispersed, having ratified all 
that was formerly done, and added numerous articles 
to the Acts of Confederation. The nature of the 
Confederation was entirely changed. The 57th Arti- 
cle reiterates with the formality of legal language 
the doctrine of the Holy Alliance : — That since the 
States of Germany consisted of sovereign Princes, 
the whole power of the State must remain united in the 
Chief Head of the State : and the Prince can only be 
required to admit the Assembly to the exercise of 
certain specified rights: but even that cannot extend 
to prevent the Prince from performing his federal 
duties. 

The meaning of these provisions is — that no 
Assembly shall in any manner control the monarch 
by demanding reforms as the condition of supplies; 
and that, the whole and indivisible sovereignty of 
the state remaining in the head, any constitution, 
any Assembly of States exists only by his license, at 
his mercy, and during his will. 



62 THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 

Here we behold the full success of the doctrines 
of the Allied Powers applied with eminent skill 
to stifle the voice of liberty, demanding the per- 
formance of royal promises. We see the practical 
development in this miniature of Europe of the prin- 
ciples which did not wait long a wider theatre and 
more daring application. 

The Allies were at last fully aware of the utter 
and absolute incompatibility, as well in logic as in 
fact, of free institutions with unrestricted power in 
the sovereign. They had learned that what the 
people demanded was — securities for good govern- 
ment; and that securities meant fetters on their 
power of doing ill. They had learned that the yearn- 
ing for free institutions was not a temporary madness, 
but the temper of the times deeply seated in the 
nature of man — a spirit of potent influence, of many 
lives, of daring character, of contagious example, and 
poisonous to the very fountains of despotic authority. 

They henceforth repudiate and renounce all liberal 
ideas, repress every aspiration after liberty as rebel- 
lion in disguise ; and, wherever it breaks out in fact, 
they regard it as the cause of God and of his vice- 
gerent promptly to march against it and mercilessly 
to trample out its last sparks of life. 

While the Princes of Germany were assembled at 
Carlsbad, they were startled by the revolutionary con- 
flagration of Naples, which threatened to throw all 
Italy into flames ; and that was the offspring of the 
explosion in Spain. 

I turn to these great events, and I earnestly invoke 
attention to these commentaries on the Holy Jllliance — 



THE HOLY ALLIANCE. 63 

the first in the series of armed interventions for the 
purpose — not merely, as in 1792 ? of sustaining a 
constitutional monarchy against an aggressive and pro- 
pagandist republic but — of extinguishing peaceful con- 
stitutional monarchies freely accepted by the 

MONARCHS ! ! 



SECTION II. 



THE CONSPIRACY 



O F 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 



THE CONSPIRACY 



OF 



LAY BACH AND VERONA 



Ihe crash of thrones in Spain and Italy fell on the 
ears of the conspiring despots of Germany like thun- 
der from a cloudless sky. The subterranean fire they 
had just stifled under their feet, seemed to roll on 
underground till it broke out, like the shock of an 
earthquake, in the two extreme peninsulas of Europe. 

That Spain and Italy, the chosen seats of des- 
potism, and its sworn ally, superstition, should thus 
confess the power of the revolutionary mania, was 
of startling import to the sovereigns. It seemed to 
betoken the universal and ineradicable nature of the 
plague. It was like blows received in the house of a 
friend. 

Spain had in three centuries sunk from the freest 
to the most despotic country in Europe. The thun- 
der of the French revolution failed to rouse it. It 
did not wake till Napoleon's assault stirred its 
blood and woke its ire, and the insults of a foreign 
despotism kindled anew the fire in the trampled and 
besotted spirit of its children. From 1808 till 1813 
the war for independence raged with a fury else- 



68 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

where unknown. The spirit of patriotism evoked 
the spirit of liberty, and the sons of Spain, while 
they fought the battles of their captive King, wisely 
provided for the security of themselves and their 
posterity the protection of a free constitution. In 
1812, the Cortes which had organized the national 
strength and roused its spirit, proposed a free and 
liberal constitution of the mixed monarchical style, 
based on a liberal suffrage of the people, and sweep- 
ing away many of the oppressive institutions which 
Spain inherited from her Priests and her Kings. 

Under this constitution the war of liberation was 
waged; with the Cortes which it created as the 
representatives of the Spanish nation, the Allied 
Sovereigns concluded a solemn league against 
France; and the Emperor of Russia formally ac- 
knowledged its entire legitimacy. 

In 1813, when Napoleon felt the ground slipping 
beneath his feet, he strove to strengthen his rear by 
restoring Ferdinand VII. to his throne, on condition 
of obtaining his support. The Cortes, in full posses- 
sion of the sovereignty of the nation, refused to 
admit the King to the exercise of his functions till 
he had sworn to the constitution. The King crossed 
the frontier, passed the popularly inclined provinces 
of Arragon and Catalonia in artful silence, and first 
at Valencia, in the midst of Elio's troops, dropped 
the mask. On the 4th of May, 1814, his procla- 
mation — promising a few administrative reforms — 
annulled the constitution. The Cortes, unwilling to 
take extreme measures, sent a remonstrance — instead 
of an army — to meet the King. In sullen and dis- 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 69 

dainful silence he marched on Madrid. On the 11th 
of May, his forces occupied the capital and consigned 
the members of the Government, the heads of the 
Cortes, and the general of their army, snatched from 
their dwellings, to the darkness of a dungeon. The 
moment for resistance had passed. Too much deli- 
cacy, too little distrust, had cost the nation its liber- 
ties. The Cortes had not learned that bayonets are 
the only arguments that weigh with Kings. They 
illustrated the confiding moderation of popular bodies, 
so often and so easily the dupe or the victim of 
audacious treason covered by a crown. They did 
not believe in the perpetration of so enormous an 
iniquity ; and they paid for their faith with years of 
confiscation, torture, and blood. 

The enthroned tyrant had learned nothing from 
misfortune. The prison of Napoleon was not a fruit- 
ful political school. He hastened to undo the work 
of the Cortes. The press was fettered by a stringent 
censorship. The Inquisition darkened the land by 
its frown ; its familiars swarmed through the pro- 
vinces, and its prisons groaned with the victims of 
priestly vengeance. A political inquisition was insti- 
tuted. Banishment or death was denounced against 
the adherents of the French. The adherents of the 
Cortes, the men who freed their country and secured 
his crown, Calvo de Rosas the hero of Saragossa, 
Alava the friend of Wellington, the moderate Marti- 
nez de la Rosa, the poets Quintana and Gallego, the 
ornaments and defence of that land of glory were 
consigned to the galleys or immured in the African 
prisons. The first year saw fifty thousand freemen 



4 



70 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

languishing in confinement for their political opin- 
ions. The restored monks swarmed through the 
land pronouncing anathemas on the constitution as 
the work of the devil ; and the intercession of 
the Bishop of Mechoacan for the restoration of the 
banished adherents of freedom was considered as mad- 
ness by the astonished King and branded as heresy 
by the doctors of the Inquisition. The blackness of 
darkness in a form which might be felt had settled 
over the doomed land — which nothing could dispel 
but the lurid fires of revolution. They flashed up at 
short intervals, in rapid succession, like signals of 
distress in the night storm at sea — but only to be 
extinguished in blood ; till the day of wrath was fully 
come. 

The first effort of the King was to wreak his ven- 
geance on his revolted colonies. From the midst 
of his troops assembled at Cadiz for embarkation, 
the smothered fire broke out in September, 1814. 
Its suppression was followed by an explosion in 
Navarre in 1815. The noble Lascy paid with his 
blood for his failure at Madrid in 1817. Again in 
1818 the forces destined for America were the focus 
of a conspiracy which cost Vidal his life. The 
measure of suffering was now full. The spirit of 
man had been pressed to its last retreat; the pent 
up power exploded all over the land with such fury 
that the cowardly despot feared to measure arms 
with the foe he had scorned and oppressed. 

Riego before his regiment, at the solemnity of the 
mass, in the church of San Juan on the 1st of 
January, 1820, proclaimed the constitution of 1812. 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 71 

He had miscalculated his strength and his forces 
were scattered in flight — when at the other end of the 
kingdom the garrison of Corunna summoned its 
officers to swear to the constitution. A junta for the 
guidance of affairs was created, headed by Don Pedro 
Agar. The cities of the province gave in their 
adhesion by acclamation. The whole north coast 
was in flames, and the commotion seemed to rise 
from the earth close by the very residence of the 
monarch. He trembled like Felix before the coming 
day of reckoning, and sought to propitiate his people 
by offering them the ancient Cortes, — once a powerful 
body, but now effete and antiquated, its very soul 
trodden out by his despotic predecessors. His people 
mocked at his weakness and saw through his trick. 
He was compelled, not by any threatened personal 
danger, not by any present military force, not by any 
decisive victory, but by the universal simultaneous 
overwhelming manifestations of his people's will, 
by the majesty of a nation's resolution, which he 
could not control and feared to disregard, to restore 
the constitution he had rent and abrogated. 

The scenes that follow are damning to the 
character of Kings. Their wickedness is half re- 
deemed when it is backed by courage. But that 
quality seems to have fled from thrones in these latter 
days. For Kings to be cowardly is as much of 
course as to be false and treacherous. 

The courage of the King gave way before the 
clamor of the people ; and on the 7th of March, 1820, 
he promised the constitution of 1812. On the 8th, a 
provisional ministry or junta was created, before whom 



72 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

the King swore to the constitution. A proclamation 
from the King announced that, as a tender-hearted 
father he had granted what his children thought 
essential to their happiness ; and that he enjoyed the 
hope of contributing to the public good, in the midst 
of their delegates, — whom he had so lovingly im- 
prisoned. He besought his people to confide in their 
King, who spoke to them in uprightness and with 
the deepest feeling of obligation which Providence 
had vouchsafed him. 

The Cortes met — the people returned nearly the 
same men whom the King had dispersed six years 
before. The King opened their solemn sitting on the 
9th of July, 1820, — with a lie in his right hand and 
a perjury in his heart. The lip curls with involun- 
tary scorn as we retrace the humiliating scene. The 
King, who came from captivity to a throne won for 
him and without his aid by the heroism of the 
people he was swift to oppress, now prepares to 
betray them by the soft words of affection. a So 
soon," he assured the Cortes, "as the excess of 
undeserved suffering brought the long suppressed 
wishes of the people to a distinct expression, I 
hastened to pursue the course they indicated, and 
professed the oath of fidelity to the constitution of 
the Cortes of 1812. From this moment the King 
and the people entered on their legitimate rights. My 
resolution was free and voluntary: it accorded with 
my interest as well as with the good of the Spanish 
people. It lies with the Cortes to found the public 
well-being on wise and righteous laws — protecting 
religion and the rights of the citizen and the sove- 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 73 

reign. To the royal power it pertains to watch over 
the execution of the laws, and especially over the 
observance of the fundamental law, the centre of the 
wishes of every Spaniard, and the surest rock of 
his hopes. This will be my constant and most 
grateful duty. To the maintaining and confirming 
the Constitution I will dedicate the power which it 
places in the hands of the King. I wish no other 
power. This suffices for my happiness and my 
fame." The solemn mockery of an oath attested the 
sincerity of the royal liar. 

This act inaugurated the restored Constitution. 
That restoration was not wrung from the King by 
personal violence nor by the threat of it. It was not 
obtained by the surprise of a sudden outbreak, at the 
instance of an insubordinate Pretorian guard. Full 
notice had been given by many an effort — so fruitless 
that the King was incredulous of an opposition 
beyond his power to suppress. The outbreak was 
long announced; it came from a distant quarter of 
the realm; it was long in spreading to the capital. 
The means of flight were at hand. A powerful body 
of troops was collected in Cadiz not so infected by 
discontent but that they would have obeyed the word 
of command. If there were any portion of the army 
reliable, there was ample time to reach it — ample 
means to concentrate it. If there were any Province 
of the realm devoted to the King or willing to fight 
for his menaced authority, there was opportunity to 
display there the royal standard and rally the faithful 
round the royal person. If the friends of loyalty 
were dispersed all over Spain, there was ample time 
10 



74 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

to call them to action by the zealous priests, the 
swarming monks, the devoted prelates. 

Yet it is certain that the King yielded to the cry 
of the people, and accepted the Constitution, without 
any one stricken field, without two armies meeting in 
battle array, without any large body of troops on 
either side concentrating on any point, the largest 
force resting all the time quietly at Cadiz subject to 
its officer's orders. 

One of two things therefore is certain. If no 
body would fight for the King and his authority, then 
it was a plain case of the distinct and formal expres- 
sion of the whole body of the nation that they would 
no longer have an absolute King to rule over them. 
The objection was not to the person but to the power 
of the King — for the effort was not to dethrone 
him, but only to restrain him, by the fetters of law 
and not by fetters of iron. The event would have 
justified fetters of iron and a rod of iron, and the 
failure to use either is a serious impeachment of the 
wisdom and resolution of the Cortes. But they did 
not either use or threaten to use them. 

Or, if the mass of the nation were in favor of the 
King and would have fought at his bidding, if the 
forces at Cadiz were faithful and available, and their 
aid was not invoked, after full information of the 
extent of the outbreak, and with ample time to con- 
vene them at Madrid, or to fall back on them at 
Cadiz, then the King freely and voluntarily, of his 
own will and pleasure, — as he swore he did, — 
granted the Constitution to the importunities and for 
the benefit of his subjects who were faithful, peaceful, 
and submissive. 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 75 

Which ever hypothesis we adopt, the inaugura- 
tion of the Constitution assumes the highest form of 
validity, and stands guaranteed by the most solemn and 
irrevocable sanctions which it is possible to conceive. 

If a nation can have rights against the monarch, 
then Spain had them. 

It is only then on the theory of the Holy Alliance, 
the absolute concentration of all sovereignty in the per- 
son of the sovereign, that Ferdinand could release 
himself from the obligations of the Constitution. 

A spark blew from Spain to Italy, and in an 
instant an explosion ensued. The minds of men 
were ripe for change and weary of the caprices of 
despotic power. 

Ferdinand IV. of Naples, had been driven by 
the French to Sicily, where the English maintained 
him on the throne, which, for once in the whole 
course of the revolutionary struggle, they caused to 
be surrounded with popular institutions, embodied in 
a Parliament modeled on their own. The King 
accepted, swore to, and acted under it. 

The folly of Murat gave the wishes of the allies a 
pretext for their gratification, and his forfeited crown 
was replaced on the head of Ferdinand in 1815, by 
the Congress of Vienna. 

His return to Naples was the signal for the abroga- 
tion of the Parliamentary Constitution of Sicily, and 
the reversal of all the reforms of the French in 
Naples. Justice became venal, the Inquisition lifted 
its head and put forth its bloodstained arms, the 
Jesuits swarmed amid the demoralized population, 
the army was not a match for the robbers on the 






76 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

highway. Freedom of thought and of the press 
expired under the stringent censorship, which sup- 
pressed domestic and excluded foreign books. Free 
opinions were crimes and the only crimes which 
could not escape punishment. 

With this state of things men were not satisfied. 
The association of the Carbonari, originally aimed at 
the expulsion of the French, subsequently expanded 
its views and its organization, and aspired to com- 
prehend all Italy in one constitutional monarchy. 
The strength and proximity of Austria, and the 
diversity of local interests and narrow ambition post- 
poned and impeded the attempt, till the revolution 
in Spain struck the chord which vibrated in all 
hearts. About the 1st of July, 1820, shortly after 
the proclamation of the Constitution by Riego at the 
head of his troops in Spain, and upon the receipt of 
that intelligence, an inspiration seized Morelli, a subal- 
tern officer at Nola, to imitate his example, and he 
found the temper of his troops in accordance with his 
own. He announced the result to his superior officer 
at Avellino; and he brought the militia of the pro- 
vince to a similar declaration. The infection spread 
all over the country. The troops sent from Naples 
could not be relied on to oppose the constitutionalists 
or actually joined them, and the crowds in the 
capital, under the eyes of the King and Court, were 
decorated with the tri-color of the Carbonari and 
clamorous for the constitution. Finally, so distinct 
and emphatic was the expression of the desire of all 
classes for the constitution that the King felt himself 
obliged to declare that in eight days he would pro- 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 77 

claim the principles of the constitution. The people 
were not content with so causeless a delay. The 
tyrant was at once fool and coward. So he slunk 
from public view and consigned to his son the duties 
of government with the title of Regent. He pro- 
claimed the constitution of 1812 of Spain as that of 
Naples, — subject to alterations required by the differ- 
ences of the two countries. The Carbonari well in- 
structed in the wiles of despotism and the cunning of 
kingcraft declined to accept this delegated title; and 
the King was compelled to issue a proclamation 
under his own hana, confirming the act of the Regent 
and promising to maintain the constitution. On the 
13th of July the King and the Princes took the oath 
of allegiance to that instrument, and on the 1st of 
October the Constitutional Parliament of the Two 
Sicilies was formally and peacefully opened by the 
Regent. How quiet were the Neapolitan peo- 
ple since the adoption of the constitution, how uni- 
versal was the satisfaction of all classes, can be shewn 
in no stronger manner than by the fact, that promptly 
on the change, the government was in a condition to 
strip itself of large masses of its scanty army for the 
purpose of prosecuting to a successful result the sup- 
pression of the Sicilian revolt. 

By this time the Holy Allies were stirring. 

At the Congress of Aix la Chapelle, a further re- 
union of the associated Sovereigns had been arranged 
to take place at Troppau, and Metternich cunningly 
screened his designs under the pretext of pursuing 
this resolution. 



78 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

The Neapolitan Government anticipated difficulty 
from the Austrian treaty, and anxiously sought by 
repeated but fruitless embassies to make its peace by 
assurances of its quiet disposition. Metternich knew 
they could not control the spread of the fire; and he 
was resolved to extinguish it — by arms if necessary. 
They sought the mediation of Alexander, who ex- 
cused himself by reason of his strict alliance with his 
exalted confederates, from taking alone and without 
consulting them, any step in a matter so closely affect- 
ing their safety. Thus rebuffed they renewed the 
negotiations with the master and leader of the plot. 
Cimitele's interview with Metternich is radiant with 
light on the views and policy of the allies. He sar- 
castically confessed his confidence in the peaceful 
intent of the Neapolitan government, whose weakness 
left little to be feared from hostilities, but for their 
interest he refused to recognize the revolutionary 
movement. The maintenance of the old constitution 
against the assaults of innovation was her only safety. 
She was not an enemy, but a patient; not a reconcili- 
ation, but a remedy was needed. All well disposed 
persons should petition the King to annul the trans- 
actions since July, and to punish the rash empirics 
who had brought their country to the brink of ruin. 
If difficulties arose, his master would remove them if 
necessary with eighty or a hundred thousand men. 
In sorrow the Neapolitan minister replied, if that be 
the ultimatum blood must flow : — and the conference 
closed. 

The clear head of Metternich was free from the 
fumes of driveling mysticism which clouded the eyes 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 79 

of Alexander and Francis. He could not be seduced 
by specious reasoning, to favor a liberalism which he 
saw to be incompatible with the continuance of ab- 
solute monarchy ; and he was the first to point out to 
his imperial masters the blunder they had been guilty 
of. He was equally conscious of the puerility of the 
Holy Treaty — the mutual pledge of royal brotherhood, 
the idle invocation of the truths of Christianity as the 
basis and principle of a political system, and the 
Utopian dream of perpetual peace under the guar- 
dianship of three military and despotic monarchies. 
But because it was idle and nugatory for the pur- 
poses and views of its dreamy authors, it was not 
therefore useless in the hand of a statesman whose 
rigid mind drew stern and practical consequences 
from the mystical symbols and pious effusions of his 
illustrious but not very bright masters. 

Bewildered with delight at their deliverance, the 
pious monarchs had covenanted to follow the pre- 
cepts of Christianity as their only rule; Metternich 
deduced the consequence, that as rebellion was sinful 
and obedience commanded, it was the duty of the 
allies to suppress the one and enforce the other. 
Since they were to remain united and to afford each 
other help and countenance on every occasion; he 
found it not difficult to persuade them that the 
revolts in Naples and Spain were the very cases 
contemplated by the treaty ; and what had passed as 
vague generality, he interpreted into a perpetual 
political league for all purposes of common interest. 
Since they were there declared to be the plenipoten- 
tiaries of God — a war against his plenipotentiary was 



80 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

war against him ; and they were called on by their 
gratitude for their deliverance to punish the daring 
violators of his majesty in the person of his delegates. 

The effusions of gratitude, the pious resolutions, 
the penitent promises, the mystical fooleries of the 
sovereign imbecils became in the skillful hands of 
their great minister the plastic instruments of deep 
and far-sighted policy. He imbued the empty phrases 
with pregnant meaning. He worked on the royal 
fears and gratitude and piety, and the lofty notions 
of their heaven-descended power, and the high mis- 
sion of training the insubordinate spirit of man to the 
submissiveness of Christian meekness — into which 
they interpreted their triumph over Napoleon, — 
till from these unpromising materials he formed and 
founded a great pervading enduring system for the 
government of Europe. He turned their enthusiastic 
ejaculations into the charter of a new Amphyctionic 
Council of which the royal and imperial trinity was 
the head — whose mission was the enforcement of the 
principles of religion as matter of government, and, 
under its cover, the suppression of the fierce intrac- 
table insubordinate and untamable spirit of liberty, 
to be exorcised as an infernal possession, and to be 
fled from as a deadly contagion. 

However the Holy Alliance may be viewed in its 
origin — whatever may have been the impulses from 
which it emanated — it soon assumed the shape and 
functions of an alliance of despots for the government 
of Europe — of a conspiracy to persecute and extermi- 
nate every spirit that lifted its head in audacious 
rivalry against the absolute power of the Ambassadors 
of God. 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 81 

The Emperors of Russia and Austria and the 
representatives of Prussia and England, in October, 
1820, met at Troppau to consult for the cure of 
Europe. The dreamy and unpractical mind of Alex- 
ander was with difficulty brought to a practical 
resolution. A bloody revolt at St. Petersburg in the 
adroit hands of Metternich threw new lights on the 
matter, brought the question home to the Autocrat, 
and served as a text pregnant with instruction as to 
the meaning and use of the Holy Treaty. Its resus- 
citation, its execution he pressed as the only safety 
against the restless heavings of the revolutionary 
spirit ; and at his instance a formal protocol embodied 
the principle, that the allies were entitled to inter- 
vene with arms for the purpose of maintaining not 
only the territorial arrangements but also the internal 
forms of government which the treaties of 1815 had 
recognized as legitimate in the European States. 
Those treaties read by the light of the Holy Treaty 
were converted into a final and immovable settlement 
of the territory and the governments of Europe; and 
for their perpetuity the allies were guarantors. 
The great principle of Metternich's policy was — the 
maintenance of the existing order of things; his 
instrument was — the alliance of the three despotic 
powers of the north. 

The new protocol was announced only when it 
was completed : and England had the poor privilege 
of delivering a powerless and disregarded protest. 

The treaty of Aix la Chapelle required notice to 
be given to the sovereign whose affairs were the 
subject of a royal congress. The King of Naples 
11 



82 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

had not been summoned; and the executors of the 
law were scrupulously legal in their iniquity. A 
circular was therefore addressed to the chief courts 
stating the solicitude excited by the overthrow of 
established governments in Naples and Spain ; invok- 
ing the principles of the alliance against Napoleon 
for the suppression of this new outbreak of the revo- 
lution ; and inviting them to a conference at Laybach. 

In January, 1821, a crowd of crowned heads and 
liveried slaves blinded the village of Laybach with 
unusual glitter. They plotted in gay mood against 
the liberties of mankind ; but no resolution was pro- 
mulgated till the advent of their cousin of Naples. 

Ferdinand in the depths of his palace trembled 
like a child at the asserted power of the nation. He 
had known only the cringe of slaves: he quailed 
before the resolute air and attitude of freemen. No 
act was too low, no lie too bold, no treachery too 
false and foul which could contribute to his release, 
not from imprisonment, but from the restraint of 
honest government. 

He patriotically volunteered to encounter with his 
aged frame the rigor of the season, the dangers of 
the voyage, the labors of the journey to Laybach, 
that he might avert the scourge of war from his 
beloved land. He earnestly promised his devoted 
efforts to confirm to her people their free constitu- 
tion; but he intimated an intention to submit the 
provisions of the constitution which he indicated to 
the assembled sovereigns. The Parliament refused 
its consent to any journey of the King which had for 
its design the improving on the Spanish constitution 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 83 

he had sworn to observe. They repeated their 
refusal even when only such slight alterations were 
suggested as might satisfy the moderate demands of 
Russia and Austria. It was only when the King 
pledged his worthless royal word that the only object 
of his mission was the maintenance of the Spanish 
constitution in its integrity, that the Parliament were 
so simple as to believe his assurance and permit his 
departure. He flew on the wings of the wind to his 
trusty friends. His presence satisfied all the formal 
scruples of the sovereigns, who without his presence 
were quite resolved on their course of action. Met- 
ternich, Hardenberg and Capo d'Istria had ar- 
ranged the results in private interviews. They dealt 
like men of business with practical matters. The 
halting protest of England was taken at its true value. 
Her declaration that her distance from the disturb- 
ance stripped her of any right of interference, but 
that the proximity of Austria to the infected district 
might admit of very different measures, was only a 
diplomatic way of neutralizing her denial of the right 
of intervention. The three despotic Powers em- 
bodied the result of their conferences in a circular, 
announcing that the great majority of the Neapolitan 
Kingdom were devoted to their King, and would 
know nothing of this rough and boisterous freedom — 
only another name for slavery ; that the troops of Aus- 
tria would be welcomed by them as deliverers; but that 
resistance from the reckless faction which controlled 
affairs would be suppressed by force. The legions 
of Russia hung like a cloud in the back-ground, to 
impress by their terror the hopelessness of defence. 



84 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

Ferdinand came to Laybach the sworn constitu- 
tional monarch of Naples, pledged to protect the 
Spanish constitution. He naturally found its best 
security in Austrian arms, and joyfully anticipated 
their departure on their mission. 

The home administration, not entirely satisfied of 
his constitutional devotion, commissioned the Duke 
de Gallo to defend their work against the royalist 
conspiracy. Remonstrance and debate, however, 
were justly considered out of place where resolutions 
were settled and the mode of execution alone was 
open ; and the Austrian Government politely relieved 
the Congress from the only croaking voice of dissent 
likely to disturb its harmonious sitting, by arresting 
the Duke at Gorz during its consultations. At the 
conclusion he was bidden to attend his master — who 
communicated the joyful intelligence with undis- 
guised delight, that, in spite of his remonstrances, 
the Congress had resolved that affairs in Naples must 
revert to their condition under the treaties of 1815, 
or an Austrian army would put them back ; and he 
was dispatched to bear the intelligence — with a lying 
letter to the Regent from the King veiling his treachery 
to his people under regrets for his fruitless interces- 
sions. 

The Austrian army followed swiftly on the feet of 
the messenger. The Parliament and people met the 
danger as one man. They flung back the proposal 
of surrender with indignation. Men volunteered for 
their country by thousands. Their words breathed 
the loftiest enthusiasm. But their measures disclosed 
that want of practical statesmanship, which always so 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 85 

fatally enervates the arm of the people in despotic 
states. Idle debates on municipal concerns had 
wasted the precious hours which should have been 
sacred to preparation. Money, arms, discipline, 
military skill — all but devotion, were wanting. Half- 
armed crowds of militia find enthusiasm a frail 
defence before the deadly missiles of war. It 
is a feeble substitute for discipline and skill ; and 
it soon cools beneath the influence of the sharp 
lessons of defeat and flight. Inexorable time 
crowded the work of years into days — but could not 
add the might of giants to the strength of men. 
The Austrian was in battle array ere the Neapolitans 
had time to assemble their men. The powers of 
despotism were ever ready to strike at naked liberty. 
They hastened to anticipate the hour of preparation : 
and rushing on the enthusiastic but ill-prepared youth 
of Naples, scattered their hastily assembled forces — 
and marched to the occupation of the city. 

The heroic King rested — as Kings now usually do — 
at a distance from the scene of conflict — till his peo- 
ple had been dragooned into submission — the hateful 
Parliament dispersed — the sworn constitution abroga- 
ted ; and then at leisurely stages he approached his 
capital, and resumed his throne amid the clamor of 
the lazaroni and the military salute of the Austrians. 

The usual results followed in swift succession. The 
schools were closed lest light should illumine the 
people. The Jesuits were recalled, to bewilder 
their consciences. The press was fettered, that no 
free word might disturb the stillness of despotism. 
The people were relieved of their useless weapons ; 



86 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

and the secret possession of them punished with 
death. The prisons were crowded with the most 
illustrious friends of freedom, and- military tribunals 
dealt from the drum-head quick destruction on the 
adherents of the vanquished cause of the country. 
The bloody and reckless wrath of the tyrant could 
only be controlled by the terrors of desertion by 
his allies ; and the horrors of his rule may be esti- 
mated when Austrian pity interposed to shield the 
victims of his undistinguishing madness. The con- 
dition of his kingdom then, is best learned from Mr. 
Gladstone's pamphlet painting that of his successor 
now. 

With these excesses we have nothing to do. They 
are too common to justify description. We deal with 
the political fact, that the three despotic powers 
assumed and acted on the principles of the Holy 
Alliance as above defined. They found a constitution 
in full and peaceful play — sanctioned by the royal 
oath — safe in the affections of the people — strong 
enough to put down domestic sedition — able to meet 
and discharge all the duties of international neigh- 
borhood — stained by no blood — and free from 
aggression on its neighbors. They left in its place 
the stillness of despotism — broken only by the groans 
of the prisoner. 

They did this, because the example of the peace- 
ful working of a free constitution was dangerous to 
the quiet of their states. They secured by treaty 
with the King the right to control his people — just 
as at Carlsbad they conspired with the Princes of 
Germany to suppress the development of political 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 87 

life. In the very act they declared war against every 
free government — against the very life and being of 
freedom. The question of its suppression was only 
one of time, policy and power. 

Had Naples been left to herself all Italy would 
have been a free and united Kingdom, strong in 
liberty, free from Austrian despotism — a support and 
a comfort to the cause of mankind. She is, what 
despots only can make mankind, the image of them- 
selves — cruel, cowardly and debased. The destruc- 
tion of the Neapolitan constitution dragged after 
it the suppression of the promising efforts for 
constitutional rights in Sardinia. There too the 
King had fled — Charles Albert was at the head of 
affairs but trembled before the outbreak he had him- 
self fostered ; and his vacillating character left the ener- 
gies of the friends of freedom to waste themselves in 
fruitless and disconnected revolts. The partisans 
of the French and of the Spanish constitution 
divided in hostile bands; the decisive sword of 
Austria was freely offered to the former to crush the 
latter : and that was followed by the necessary sub- 
mission of their allies. Italy again lay at the feet of 
her masters. 

This was a grand step for despotism. The exam- 
ple of the American revolution and our peaceful 
republic shook all the despotisms of Europe. The 
example of free, peaceful and united Italy would 
have been deadly poison to the absolute power of 
Austria. Her dominions would have been curtailed 
of their Italian provinces. She would have been 
driven to legal, moderate, constitutional government. 



88 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

Russia would have been deprived of her faithful ally 
and servant, and confined in the frozen North till the 
fires of liberty should reach her. Germany, free 
and popular, would have been released from Austrian 
dictation; and now she would have been a glorious 
Empire of confederated states on the plan of our 
magnificent union, quietly reposing on her conscious 
strength, defying assault from abroad, and maintain- 
ing by the even operation of equal laws the peace 
and quiet of her citizens — a barrier against Russian 
aggression — an example to restless and uneasy 
France — a model of constitutional liberty. 

The children of despotism are wiser in their gen- 
eration than the children of light; they saw the 
dilemma, and manfully threw away their liberal pro- 
fessions in the face of a despotic necessity. 

The proximity of Naples to the Italian provinces 
of Austria, excited her solicitude and demanded her 
first attention. The facility of her success gave 
the leisure and confirmed the resolution of repeating 
the experiment in Spain. The congress of Aix 
la Chapelle had admitted France to the confed- 
eration of monarchs. It was fit that having kissed 
the hand of her masters, she should be eager to 
show her devotion by some work of repentance. 
The arms of Austria had been stained by her 
onslaught on Italian liberty. The legitimist monarch 
of France aspired to equal honors, at the expense of 
Spain. The example of her constitutional govern- 
ment was of damning example by the side of the 
retrogressive monarchy of France. Her free consti- 
tution won by the swords which had expelled the 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 89 

invader was a standing libel on the fraudulent charter 
of the French — the emanation of the grace of a 
Prince who won his crown by foreign bayonets, and 
reigned by the right divine and Russian permission. 
Impelled by the Furies who urged to that madness 
which precedes ruin, that shade of a monarch urged 
the intervention of the Allies, that his might be the 
glory of the execution. 

The Congress of Laybach had adjourned late in 
1821 with the resolution of meeting at Verona, 
within a year — when the results of the operations in 
Italy could be known and the extent of the inflamma- 
tion estimated, — to determine on the treatment of 
Spain: and in October, 1822, Verona swarmed with 
princes, priests, diplomatists and pilgrims on the 
holy crusade against the political miscreants who 
defiled the soil of Spain, sacred for centuries to des- 
potism and superstition. 

Let us, ere we recount their deeds, estimate the 
weight and character of the monster whose life they 
sought. 

The constitution was sworn to on the 7th of 
March, 1820. On the 9th July, 1820, the first 
Cortes were opened by the King — in that speech 
whose promises were all perjuries in advance. His 
feeble mind longed for his absolute power — so soon 
as the ebullitions of the revolution sunk to quiet 
under the constitution. His spirit was unchanged — 
it had only yielded to the commanding voice of the 
nation. If that voice could be changed, if its power 
could be curbed, if foreign aid might supply the defi- 
ciencies of internal strength, and silence the clamors 
12 



90 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

or suppress the movements of the people, no fear of 
perjury stood in his way — for absolution was ready 
beforehand — no promise was an obstacle — for he was 
the sovereign and his will could not be bound. His 
was the cause of God and of his order — and any 
means were holy in such a cause. On this system 
he acted: and the constitutionalists were simple 
enough to permit it. 

The King hastened in the fall of 1820, even before 
the dissolution of the Cortes, to hide his chagrin at 
the Escurial; and instantly on its dissolution, without 
consulting his ministry and in violation of the very 
words of the constitution, he changed the military 
command of the province of Madrid from the trusty 
hands of Gen. Vigodet — an avowed and honest but 
moderate constitutionalist, to those of Carvajal its 
secret foe. This was the first step in the counter 
revolution to which the undivided and unscrupulous 
efforts of the King were directed. The discontent 
excited by this act, in connection with the discovery 
of a plot against the constitution, having its seat in 
the very neighborhood of the Escurial and implicating 
the King's confessor, roused the people to violent 
demonstrations, which were appeased only by his 
return to Madrid. 

This salutary indication that the public temper 
would not be trifled with led to a substitution of 
Baldes, a vigorous liberal, in the place of Amarillas, 
as minister of war: he at once recalled Riego to the 
command in Arragon: and Arco Aguero, Lopez 
Bannos, Mina and Velasco, reliable men of the con- 
stitution, were placed in command of Estremadura, 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 91 

Navarre, Galicia and Seville. In their hands the coun- 
try was safer than the King cared it should remain. 

A collision between the guards and the people — 
brought on by the former resenting the cheers of the 
latter to the "Constitutional King" — compelled the 
ministry, in the spring of 1821, to disband the guards 
for the sake of order. The King retaliated by dis- 
missing the ministry, — whose place was filled by men 
of constitutional opinions but of little energy. 

Under their guidance the Cortes, which met in 
extraordinary session on the 1st of March, 1821, ex- 
erted itself to found an adequate military force to 
suppress internal disturbances which seemed to have 
their fountain near the throne. * Summary tribunals 
and prompt proceedings, and martial law when the 
civil arm was overmatched and defied, preserved the 
cause of order: yet so moderate was their course, 
that their punishments were ascribed to treasonable 
leniency, and provoked the mob in one case to a 
summary execution of a priestly conspirator con- 
demned to the galleys. The incompetent ministry 
failed to punish the outrage: and the King seized 
the moment of public terror and revulsion to relieve 
himself of Villalba as military commander of Madrid, 
and to substitute in his place Murillo, a man of distin- 
guished firmness but of sinister views as to the 
constitution, and devoted at once to the King and to 
the essential modification, if not to the abrogation of 
the constitution. Thus the King had Carvajal for 
the province and Murillo for the city — men not 
devoted to the constitution they were appointed to 
defend. The appointment of Murillo, though dis- 



92 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

tasteful to the Cortes and the liberals, was permitted 
to pass without objection, in consideration of the 
disorder he was appointed to suppress. — The Cortes 
might have shewn equal moderation in a different 
manner, with more safety to the country and the 
constitution. 

Thus strengthened, the King strangled by his veto 
not only the law against political associations; but 
fastened on the people the iron fetters of the feudal 
system which the Cortes in the true spirit of free 
government strove to break. England had passed 
such a law in the time of Charles II : France had 
torn up the system by the roots : and Prussia made a 
similar radical reform the first boon she offered her 
people to incite them to the war of liberation. Fer- 
dinand knew the connection between feudal rights 
and despotic power: and with his eyes on the res- 
toration of the former, refused the abrogation of the 
latter. That excitement should boil up in the public 
mind on such events is not surprising. The wonder 
is that it did not break out in deeds of violence. 
The feeling of security fled with the session of the 
Cortes to whose conservative liberalism all men 
looked for protection against the adverse machina- 
tions of the Court and the Clubs: but the policy of 
the King was to justify the royalist by the popular 
disturbances : and he therefore postponed, against the 
urgent solicitations of the people, the meeting of the 
Cortes till October. The event justified the adverse 
fears and hopes. An accident occasioned in August 
a collision between the guards and the people. 
The people clamored for Murillo's removal; but 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 93 

the King not only refused to dismiss him but dis- 
charged the Minister of War for accepting even his 
resignation—replaced him by an incompetent dotard 
of royalist sympathies — and followed up his advantage 
by striking Riego from the command of Arragon, 
where his faith and energy and heroic spirit would 
have bid defiance to the French deliverers. The 
false and slanderous pretext was, that against all his 
known constitutional tendencies he had proclaimed 
the Republic in his province. It was worth a lie and 
a libel to be relieved from the terror of such a name. 
The ministry of war was successively offered to Con- 
tador, and Rodriguez, whose incompetency would 
destroy its efficiency : and on their refusal the King 
provided in the person of Salvador an opponent of 
the constitution to conduct its defence — who answered 
his master's expectations by treasonably betraying it 
in its last retreat. The fortunate results of the assault 
on Naples and Sardinia had raised the hopes of a like 
rescue : and the King was thoughtfully intent on giv- 
ing his friends as little difficulty as might consist with 
his safety till their arrival. The people could not be 
both blind and dumb while their friends were stricken 
down, and they themselves delivered defenceless to 
their foes. These outrages of the King called forth 
counter manifestations from the people. In Madrid, 
in Seville, Malaga and Carthagena, processions and 
assemblies bespoke the deep feelings of the people for 
freedom insulted in the person of Riego; and the 
throne was assailed with petitions for his restoration, 
or the reasons of his removal. The country was 
excited to the strongest manifestations of discontent : 



94 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

but they did not break out into revolutionary vio- 
lence. 

These events introduced the session of the Cortes 
which opened on the 28th of September, 1821. 
Thus far, the people, though threatened by foreign 
war and domestic treachery, however violent in 
language, had been on the whole moderate in their 
deeds. The Cortes followed their too tame example, 
and without holding the Government to a strict 
accountability for these significant acts, proceeded to 
the consideration of matters of ordinary import, when 
the state of the country threatened them with a 
royalist revolt and the King was smoothing the road 
for foreign invasion. Encouraged by their apparent 
indifference, he took another step in the same direc- 
tion. He recalled from the most important military 
posts the friends of the Constitution, Jauregui from 
Cadiz, Empecinado from Zamora, Velasco from 
Seville, and the heroic and unconquerable Mina from 
Galicia, and supplied their places by men lukewarm 
or hostile to the Constitution, who would infuse no 
energy into the defence of the country, and would 
not be likely to mistake the King's friends for the foes 
they were to oppose. 

Venegas the bitterest opponent of the revolution, 
the last to give in his adhesion to the triumphant 
constitution, was sent to command the stronghold of 
Cadiz. The city rose in indignant outcry against 
such treachery and refused him admission. Madrid 
joined in the remonstrance. All the large cities of 
Andalusia demanded the dismissal of a minister who 
could consent to such an appointment. The excite- 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 95 

t 

ment raged in the clubs, and fierce words, such as 
Danton or Marat had spoken and acted out, were 
muttered in no doubtful tones. Venegas shrank from 
the storm. Andilla, his successor, equally objection- 
able, met with an equally abrupt opposition. Daviz, 
intended as Velasco's substitute, was unceremoniously 
driven from Seville ; and Mina was forced to resume 
his post in Galicia by the indignant people. They 
met and foiled artful villany with blunt honesty. 
They were justly little scrupulous as to the mode of 
dealing with it. The ministry bent before the 
blast, — but the King found them too useful tools to 
be willing to part with them. 

The Cortes disapproved of all the illegal violence 
yet failed to remonstrate with the King on its 
causes — till seeing the country on the verge of civil 
war, they spoke in manly and moderate tone the 
truth to the King, laid to his ministry's charge the 
popular discontent, and besought their removal from 
his councils. He delayed as long as he dared, and it 
was not till January, 1822, when the cloud was black 
all over Spain, the south in arms, and Catalonia 
ready to defy his authority, that he surrendered 
his advisers. 

Instantly the angry waves subsided. It was no 
revolutionary rage, but manly resolution to do what 
our English ancestors and our American fathers did, 
a readiness to snuff despotism in the tainted breeze, 
and defy it while yet distant. The removal of the 
danger quieted the fear, and the first step of the 
Cortes was to signalize their revolutionary madness 
by passing a law to suppress the violence of the 



96 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

press, — in spite of the furious clamor of the clubs ! 
But still the military power and most important posts 
were not in the hands of the friends of the constitu- 
tion. 

The members of the new Cortes were elected in 
the midst of the excitement, and were the devoted 
friends of the constitution. Immediately on their 
meeting, in February, 1822, a new ministry, with 
Martinez de la Rosa at its head, took the reins of 
government — men signalized for their mild and mod- 
erate constitutional views, admirable advisers for 
quiet times, but not gifted with the rough energy of 
pilots for such a storm. For now it was apparent 
that domestic violence conspiring with foreign force 
threatened the constitution. 

As the ferment subsided among the liberals, the 
intrigues of the court and the priests stirred up the 
adherents of despotism to deeds of violence infinitely 
surpassing those of their opponents. Strange com- 
pounds of the priest, the renegade, and the robber, 
united themselves in bands of defenders of the faith, 
and swarmed through old Castile and Navarre, and 
infested the mountains of Catalonia; while weaker 
troops ranged over the southern provinces, drove the 
trade of loyal robbery, at the bidding of monks, in 
the cause of the King. In Valencia, the tyrannical 
conduct of one of his officers brought the people and 
the soldiery into bloody collision, and threatened to 
spread the flames of war throughout the land. These 
things were done with the knowledge, by the parti- 
zans, and for the benefit of the King, who quietly 
watched and secretly instigated disturbances which 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 97 

threatened to dissolve the bands of social order. 
They drew their origin and support from the fanatical 
wrath of priests and monks, and the countenance of the 
King and Court; while the French army lined the 
borders, instigating and aiding the outbreaks, and 
waiting to complete what they might leave undone. 
The Cortes had long watched with solicitude the 
course of events, dissatisfied with the ministry — which 
sought to avert danger by conciliating the King, and 
leaving in their places the dangerous officers he had 
appointed — yet unwilling, against the remonstrances 
of Rosa, to break in on his policy. But now the im- 
pending danger of civil and foreign war was so great 
that while preparing an army and contracting loans, 
they besought the King to quiet the minds of men 
and give energy to the administration of the law, by 
appointing men who possessed and were entitled to 
the confidence of the country. Nothing could have 
been more distasteful to the King. He feigned ill- 
ness as an excuse for delay, and watched the gather- 
ing cloud, till finally, on the 30th of August, 1822, 
he felt himself strong enough to venture to present 
himself before his people at Aranjuez. Shouts of 
"long live the absolute King," pleased his ear, and 
but for the timely advent of the National Guard of 
Toledo, the loyal mob, joined by the guard, would 
have swollen to a royal army. On the same day in 
Valencia, part of the garrison in like manner began 
the revolt, but were quelled, after sharp fighting, by 
their colleagues. The patience of the Cortes was 
exhausted. They demanded the return of the King 
to Madrid; but he evaded compliance, till on the 30th 
13 



98 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

of June he came to close the Cortes. The excited 
rabble, as the procession passed^ shouted huzzas for 
Riego. The guard and the people stood face to face. 
An officer, a decided liberal, in staying the collision, 
was shot by one of his own men. The guards, it was 
known, had been tampered with by the Court ; and 
this deed was ascribed to that source. Thousands of 
the people and troops surrounded the Palace, where 
the guards entrenched themselves. 

After thus standing in hostile attitude for a night 
and a day, four battalions renounced their obedience, 
encamped out of the city, and refused to return, in 
spite of Murillo's assurances of the safety of the King. 
The latter openly took the part of the revolted guards. 
He detained the ministry in the Palace so that no 
orders could be given; and Riego and Ballesteros 
were driven to assume authority to concentrate an 
adequate force to repel the expected assault of the 
guards. The King laid before his ministers a ramb- 
ling paper assuming that the existing disturbances 
had broken and abrogated the constitution and remit- 
ted him to his unrestricted power; and he spoke of 
rewarding the guard whom the liberals had excited, 
and denounced bitterly Riego's conduct. They 
replied he had no powers but under the constitution, 
and that the guard should be punished and not 
rewarded. Still he would not yield, nor strike a 
decided blow ; but waited in the hope of something 
turning up from the seething whirlpool. The guards 
in the Palace were prepared by drink and money and 
caresses to join the revolt. 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 99 

In this condition of affairs the four battalions made 
a formal assault on the city, gained the interior by 
treachery, were foiled in an attempt to seize the 
arsenal and occupy the open place before the palace, 
into which they were forced to throw themselves. 
The troops true to the Constitution crowded to the 
scene, and stood ranged in battle array before the 
palace ; and the King, and the guard were at their 
mercy. Yet after every provocation, in the moment 
of easy victory they were guilty of no excess^ of no 
violence, of no threats against the guilty King, but 
contented themselves with demanding the disbanding 
of the guards. This was agreed to. The two 
battalions which had not taken active part in the dis- 
turbances, marched out to their cantonments. The 
other four marched out in battle array, but as if 
about to stack their arms — till when close upon the 
constitutionalists, without a word or a provocation, 
they poured a volley into their very faces. Fury, 
rage, madness, and death in an instant ruled the 
hour; and a general massacre of the guards righte- 
ously rewarded their blood-thirsty treachery. The 
victorious troops of the national guard at once occu- 
pied the Palace, and the King with supple and 
cowardly hypocrisy hastened to return them his 
eager thanks in the name of the country for their 
faith and patience ! ! Verily they deserved them — 
for letting him continue to live ! ! 

These are the scenes which the Emperor of Russia 
alludes to when, concluding his climax of the horrors 
of the Spanish revolution, he says — "On the 7th of 
July, 1822, blood was seen to flow in the Palace of 



7 



100 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

the King and a civil war raged throughout the 
Peninsula! !" 

It is true — blood did flow in the Palace of the 
King: but it was the blood of constitutionalists, shed 
by the rebellious partisans of the King, in treacher- 
ous and cowardly violation of the terms of a merciful 
capitulation. A civil war did rage in the Peninsula ; 
but it was the offspring of the machinations of the 
King, and his priests, and foreign Allies — a revolt not 
by, but against the constitutional government of the 
country ! ! So much for Muscovite history ! 

But that civil war was soon as effectually hushed 
by the vigor of the Cortes and the new ministry — as 
the revolt of the guards was put down by the national 
guard. 

The ministry were promptly dismissed; devoted 
but inexperienced friends of the constitution suc- 
ceeded them : commands were conferred on reliable 
men ; Mina promptly dispersed and drove from the 
country the Royalist Junta of d'Urgel, who assumed 
the powers of government in the name of a captive 
Kins:. Other revolts shared the same fate. The 
constitution was triumphant over all its domestic 
foes, unstained with blood or cruelty — strong for all 
the purposes of maintaining internal peace and order, 
too strong to rest its power on violence or the threat 
of it, and free from the slightest imputation of propa- 
gating revolutionary principles beyond its borders, con- 
tent with mild and moderate rule and rich in all the 
promised fruits of a blessed freedom. Such was the 
conduct of the Spanish Government, so moderate, so 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 101 

mild, so equitable, so considerate, so pure in its 
high office, that fiends could find no cause against it. 

There was no attempt to propagate their principles 
in any neighboring land. There was no revolu- 
tionary violence which was not discountenanced and 
punished by the ministry and the Cortes. 

The Cortes, elected by the free suffrages of the 
people, and therefore embodying the spirit of the 
revolution, were moderate, sedate, respectful to the 
King and the constitution, and finally sacrificed their 
cause and themselves in a vain effort to ward off an 
attack rather than adopt the measures of energy 
requisite to repel it. They left the conduct of the 
war and the appointment of officers in the hands of 
the King, who was the centre of the internal insur- 
rections and of the external assault : he encouraged 
the one by the priests and monks, always on the side 
of the power of darkness; he facilitated the advance 
and ensured the success of the foreign enemy, by 
opposing to them, on the most important points, men 
indifferent and cold towards the Constitution, or 
its secret enemies, who betrayed it on the first 
opportunity. And while the Cortes strove energeti- 
cally to suppress and punish insurrections against the 
King — provoked and justified by his treacherous 
conduct and scandalous appointments ; he encouraged 
those against the Cortes even to the last moment. 
While these events were transpiring, the allied 
despots were conspiring at Verona how to find in 
them a pretext for destroying the liberty of Spain 
The Congress met in October, 1822. 



102 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

There appeared the Emperors of Russia and 
Austria and the King of Prussia with their minis- 
ters., breathing the spirit of Metternich, who on the 
journey had dispelled the doubts of Alexander, and 
turned his eye from the dangerous attractions of the 
Grecian struggle by lofty suggestions of his mission 
for the restoration of monarchical order in Europe. 
England and France were there — the youngest con- 
verts to the infernal conspiracy — the former already 
tired of the burthens and disgusted with the dis- 
honors of the association ; and struggling under the 
lead of Canning to free herself from its influence. 
The latter, the instigator of the crusade against the 
liberties of Spain — which she felt to be a dangerous 
example from their complete success. And honor- 
ably seated amid the potentates of Europe were the 
delegates of the revolutionary junta of d'Urgel — a 
band of rebels against the government but for the 
King of Spain, crowded into one corner of the 
kingdom and crushed ere the Congress ceased its 
deliberations : and they sat at the board of Kings who 
assumed to be the apostles of order, as the representa- 
tives and in the name of the nation by whose laws 
they were denounced and punished. In the name of 
France, Montmorency pressed on the Congress the 
impossibility of tolerating on her borders revolutionary 
disorders of such dangerous example; and demanded 
their countenance and support in the event of hostili- 
ties. He spoke to no cold and indifferent listeners. 
They were zealous for the cause of Kings, and the 
Emperor of Russia promptly tendered the aid of 
forty thousand troops on whatever frontier of Spain 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 103 

France might need them. The Duke of Wellington 
spoke a somewhat different language from that of 
Castlereagh at Laybach. The scope of the interven- 
tion looked beyond Spain to her American Colonies. 
England declined to be a party to any armed inter- 
vention in the affairs of Spain ; but distinctly asserted 
her right and intention to recognize the independence 
of the colonies, in case of an attempt by the allies to 
reduce them; and abruptly withdrew from the con- 
ferences. But England did not do for freedom, what 
its foes were doing for despotism. It was her first 
step in the right direction; and we must pardon its 
faltering tread. — The Congress resolved on stringent 
remonstrances with the constitutional government of 
Spain concerning the ruinous course of political affairs 
in the peninsula, and on the withdrawal of their 
representatives upon their failure to effect a change. 
In this event it was left to France to take such steps 
as her safety might require. They vainly but slily 
hoped that French intrigues and influences, the 
threat of her impending force and the encouragement 
of domestic dissension and royalist revolts, would do 
the work of the friends of order without the needless 
scandal of a public execution. 

At the dissolution of the Congress the "Three 
Powers" renewed their assurances to the other 
Courts of Europe, that the Holy Allies adhered 
with unshaken resolution to their principles; that the 
Allied Monarchs were resolved to war upon revolu- 
tionary movements, wherever and in whatever form they 
might appear: that they had rejected the prayers of 
the Greeks and ordered the recall of their ministers 



104 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

from Spain; but that the earnest concurrence of all 
governments was essential to the attainment of the 
object they proposed to themselves — the support and 
maintenance of social order; and should they lend an 
ear to other counsels, they were robbing themselves 
of their only means of guarding their subjects from 
the ruin which threatened them. 

A change of ministry in France modified the spirit 
but not the objects of her policy; delays indicated a 
shrinking from the last resort; but still the object was 
pursued of wringing from Spanish fear a change in 
the constitution. Even England joined in the effort to 
subdue the courage of the constitutional government, 
and violated her own principles by advising con- 
cessions to a foreign demand for a change in the con- 
stitution, and tried to shake their resolution by paint- 
ing the disastrous results of an unequal conflict. One 
and all were repelled by the spirit of independence 
which scorned advice supported by a menace. 

The remonstrances of the three Northern Powers 
were presented simultaneously with that of France. 
Equal in insolence, impertinence and insult, in auda- 
cious arrogance and despotic pride, their very tone 
closed the door to conciliation, even had their object 
been any thing itself, if couched in the most courtly 
phrase, but a wanton and daring outrage on the in- 
dependence of nations. They all in dolorous strain 
bewailed the unhappy condition of Spain, ascribed 
her misfortunes to the blind fury of the revolutionary 
spirit, and saw no remedy for the evil so long as 
their enlightened and liberal monarch, Ferdinand VII. 
was stripped of his uncontrolled and despotic power. 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 105 

The canting hypocrisy, the insolent criticisms, the 
ignorance and falsification of plain historical facts, the 
libelous blackening of the character of the Spanish 
liberals, with which these memorials abound, poorly 
supply the place of reason — and only illustrate the 
usual course of deliberate villany, which always black- 
ens the character of the victim to extenuate the 
crime. The liberal King of Prussia was aghast at a 
constitution u which confounding all elements and all 
power and assuming only the single principle of a per- 
manent and legal opposition against the government, 
necessarily destroyed that central and tutelary author- 
ity which constitutes the essence of the monarchical 
system. " It would seem therefore that the opposi- 
tion in England — which is now grown to be a some- 
what chronic disease — in monarchical eyes is only 
secured from criticism because the jest might prove 
too serious ! ! 

He considered a sufficient condemnation of the 
Spanish Government, "that it was at once powerless 
and paralyzed. All its powers were found concen- 
trated, accumulated, and confounded, in one single 
assembly; this assembly presented only a conflict of 
opinions and views of interests and passions, in the 
midst of which propositions and resolutions of the 
most heterogeneous kind were constantly produced, 
resisted or neutralized." The concentration of all 
powers in one man would have been quite unobjec- 
tionable: and the latter clause not unaptly describes 
an American Congress or an English Parliament. 

He complains that the "ascendency of the fatal 
doctrines of a disorganizing philosophy," augmented 
14 



106 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

"the general delusion" — till "every notion of sound 
policy was abandoned for vain theories." 

He expressed some disappointment that such a 
despotic faction did not fall to pieces ; but he found 
the conservative principle of its existence in the 
"delusive declamations of the tribunes and ferocious 
outcries of the clubs;" and it was asserted as the 
chief of the grievances laid to the charge of Spain 
that "doctrines subversive of all social order are 
openly preached and protected. Insults, directed 
against the principal sovereigns of Europe fill with 
impunity the public journals. The revolutionists of 
Spain disperse their emissaries, in order to associate 
with themselves in their pernicious labors, whatever 
conspirators may be found in foreign countries against 
public order and legitimate authority." 

I do not know of which of these crimes this 
Republic is not thrice guilty. 

Prince Metternich assured the Spaniards that "con- 
formably to eternal decrees good can never arise to 
states any more than to individuals from a disregard 
of the first duties imposed upon man in social order ; 
the amelioration of the condition of subjects should 
not be commenced by criminal illusions, by pervert- 
ing opinion and by misleading the conscience; and 
military revolt can never form the basis of a happy 
and durable government." 

How miserable and insecure then is the condition 
of the people of this Republic. 

Prince Metternich states with logical precision the 
principle of his policy, and lays bare what is the 
object of his fears and his hate. He would have felt 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. ]07 

"a just repugnance to intermeddle with the internal 
affairs of an independent nation/' "if the evil oper- 
ated by her revolution was concentrated or could be 
concentrated within her territorial limits. But this is 
not the case: this revolution even before it arrived at 
maturity, had been the cause of great disasters in 
other states; it was this revolution which, by the con- 
tagion of its principles and, of its example, and by the 
intrigues of its principal partisans, created the revolu- 
tions of Naples and Piedmont; it was this revolution 
which would have excited insurrections throughout 
Italy, menaced France and compromised Germany, 
but for the intervention of the powers which pre- 
served Europe from this new conflagration. Every 
where the destructive means employed in Spain to 
prepare and consummate the revolution, have served 
as a model to those who flattered themselves that they 
were paving the way to new conquests. Every where 
the Spanish constitution has become the rallying 
point, and the war-whoop of a faction, combined 
alike against the security of thrones and the repose 
of subjects;" in consequence of these things "her 
relations with the greatest portion of Europe are 
deranged or suspended," and they could be restored 
only by revesting the King with the power "of restor- 
ing order and peace in his kingdom, of surrounding 
himself with men equally worthy of his confidence by 
their principles and talents, and finally of substituting 
an order of things in which the rights of the monarch 
shall be happily blended with the real interests and 
legitimate views of all classes of the nation." 



108 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

The Emperor of all the Russias, learned in con- 
stitutional lore — but oblivious of scenes in which he 
had been a conspicuous actor— vilifies the Spanish 
revolution as the act of "perjured soldiers/' who 
"turned their arms against their sovereign and their 
country, to impose on Spain laws which the public 
reason of Europe, enlightened by the experience 
of all ages, stamped with its highest disapprobation." 
He might have recollected that a perjured King had 
annulled those very laws which he had sworn to 
maintain, and which the people sought only to 
restore. He could scarcely have forgotten that he 
himself had formally recognized as legitimate those 
very laws and that very government, which he now 
insolently asserts the public reason of Europe stamps 
with its highest disapprobation ! 

He painted "the evils that are inseparable from a 
state of things where the conservative principle of 
social order had been forgotten," and among the 
grievances to be redressed by foreign arms, we are 
startled to find enumerated " ruinous loans and contri- 
butions unceasingly renewed — religion despoiled of 
her patrimony — the throne of popular respect — au- 
thority transferred to assemblies where the blind pas- 
sions of the multitude seized upon the reins of govern- 
ment:" and lastly, the climax of horrors is capped 
by the impudent assertion that, "on the 7th of July 
blood was seen to flow in the palace of the King, and 
a civil war raged throughout the Peninsula." 

The English debt, and her despoiled monasteries 
may yej; provoke the reforming hand of the Czar! 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 109 

The throne of France has been despoiled of re- 
spect sufficiently to require his restoring zeal ! He 
may find on this side the Atlantic many cases 
of authority transferred to assemblies where the 
blind passions of the multitude have seized the reins 
of government; but he will have his hands full if he 
undertakes to wrest them away ! It was not unnatu- 
ral that the successor of the murdered Paul should 
be somewhat sensitive to the flow of blood in royal 
palaces; but the example hardly strengthens his case! 

These insolent pretences were met and repelled 
with manly bluntness by the ministry. They looked 
war calmly in the face, while they tendered the min- 
isters of the allies their passports. With laconic 
point they assured the minister of France that his 
master's solicitude for the welfare of Spain would be 
best displayed and relieved by withdrawing his army 
of agitation from her borders. The Austrian minis- 
ter they dismissed with the cool reply, that his Cath- 
olic majesty was indifferent whether he maintained 
relations or not with the court of Vienna. To the 
Russian, the minister of foreign affairs applied words 
of just and indignant severity — You have shamefully 
abused {perhaps through ignorance) the law of nations y 
which is always respectable in the eyes of the Spanish 
Government. I transmit by order of his Majesty the 
passports you desire, hoping your excellency will be 
pleased to leave this capital with as little delay as 
possible. 

Still the irrevocable step was delayed, till Alexan- 
der, impatient at doubts he could not comprehend, 
urged France to act in the spirit of her negotiations; 



110 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

and Austria and Prussia promised aid in case the 
Spanish war should kindle domestic disturbances in 
the rear. Ministerial doubts yielded to such sugges- 
tions. Louis XVIII. in January, 1823, in opening 
the Chambers, defined the purposes of the interven- 
tion to be to secure the safety of his own people, and 
Spain from extreme misfortune; at the call of the 
God of St. Louis, to maintain a descendant of Henry 
IV. on the throne of Spain; to obtain for Ferdinand 
VII. the freedom to bestow on his people those insti- 
tutions which they could only obtain through him, and 
which alone could assure their quiet, and dispel the 
solicitudes of France. 

On the fifteenth of March, the Due d' Angouleme, 
to whom the conduct of the expedition was fitly con- 
fided, left Paris for the Army, and immediately the 
French legions passed the Bidassoa, on their disgrace- 
ful crusade. 

For Spain, the conflict was hopelessly unequal. 
Nothing but miracles of valor and skill, devotion and 
unity, could save her. She was deficient in all. 
Her treasury was empty — her taxes unproductive — 
her army weak, scattered and undisciplined. In a 
contest for life and death, the conduct of the war was 
in the hands of a traitor, who stirred up the sedition 
he had sworn to suppress, and eagerly hoped for the 
arrival of the foes of his country, as his deliverers. 
He seized the moment of the adjournment of the 
Cortes in February, when the French were ready to 
cross the frontier, to dissolve the constitutional min- 
istry, and strip the northern army of its only reliable 
commanders, Mina and Ballesteros; and their resto- 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. HI 

ration at the clamor of a mob, left small hope of 
energetic and concurrent action. The King had 
systematically filled every important post, so far as 
possible, with men doubtful in their politics, indiffer- 
ent to the cause of the constitution, and ready at any 
convenient moment to betray it. The ministry, with 
ruinous moderation, had deferred the evil day of 
decisive action, under the vain hope that they could 
soften the hate of the allies by conciliatory conduct. 
They were in the midst of a crisis, when desperate 
remedies were the only wisdom, — and they acted as 
men who hoped for peace, if they gave no cause for 
war. They forgot that the existence of the constitu- 
tion was the cause of the war — that the more quiet 
and peaceful and satisfactory was their rule, the more 
damning was their example, the more ruinous their 
influence, the more worthy of extermination. They 
therefore were obliged to meet the enemy, not only 
with forces utterly inadequate to a contest in the 
field; but, of the four divisions of their army, three 
were commanded by persons lukewarm in the cause, 
or secretly hostile to it, or despairing of its success; 
all of whom hastened its doom by treachery and trea- 
son. Abisbal, who commanded the capital, opened 
negotiations with the enemy on his first advance, 
divided and disheartened the troops, and was re- 
moved from the command by his officers. Murillo, 
at a critical period of the contest, abandoned the 
cause, and carried his troops over to the enemy; and 
Ballesteros, disheartened by the defection of Abisbal, 
conducted the war not as a desperate revolutionary 
struggle, but with a view to good terms at its close; 



112 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

and finished, after a few indecisive skirmishes, 
by surrendering upon good terms for himself and his 
followers. Mina in Catalonia, and Villafranca in the 
south, alone conducted the war in the desperate spirit 
which the occasion required. In the same false hope 
of conciliating, the Cortes neglected to appeal to 
the revolutionary spirit to which they owed the 
constitution, in its defence, and left themselves desti- 
tute of the only energy which could supply the defi- 
ciencies of money and of men. They relied on the 
guerrilla warfare, yet feared to employ its leaders. 
The enthusiastic devotees of the constitution they 
left in obscurity ; and only called the heroic Riego 
to command, when nothing could be done but 
sacrifice his life to the cause. They paralyzed the 
whole conduct of the war, by leaving it to a perjured 
King, whose hopes were blasted by victory, to whom 
defeat gave despotic power, and in whose name 
swarms of priests and monks roused the lower rabble 
to revolt, and preached sedition in the cause of order. 

Such a cause, so defended, was lost from the first. 

Before the advancing foe, as treachery, and luke- 
warmness, and the weakness of despair relaxed the 
energies of their defenders, and their armies melted 
into nothing, the Cortes, carrying with them the 
reluctant King, eagerly covetous of captivity at the 
hands of the French, adjourned from Madrid to Se- 
ville. They scarcely drew breath, before they were 
compelled to seek safety in Cadiz. Even there, 
treachery had anticipated them, and prepared in their 
last retreat defenceless and dismantled fortifications — 
untenable even by Spanish valor. There, in the last 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 113 

ditch, surrounded by her faithful children, the liberty 
and the constitution of Spain fell before the murder- 
ous assault, after a defence such as only the sons of 
liberty know how to exhibit. 

With their fall closed the second battle of light 
and darkness in the nineteenth century; and the 
cheering dawn was turned into night. 

Stripped of the pretences which thinly veiled the 
dark purposes of the despots, their act assumes the 
form of a high crime against the liberty, laws, and 
independence of free nations. It has a meaning, 
which it becomes us deeply to ponder, under the 
light of recent revelations. 

The safety of France was not implicated in the 
Spanish Revolution, save by the bare example of a 
free government established in spite of the opposition 
of the King. Social order was not disturbed by 
the constitutional authorities. They were devoting 
their best energies successfully to maintain it against 
the partisans of the King, the intrigues of his priests 
and courtiers, and the countenance and support of 
the menacing army of France. 

The blood that flowed in the Palace was shed by 
the King's guards, at his instigation, in a revolt 
against the established government, to re-instate him 
in his unlimited and despotic power; and he hypo- 
critically thanked those who suppressed the insurrec- 
tion. 

The ruinous loans and exhausting taxes, which 
were insolently put forward as grounds of interfer- 
ence by a foreign nation, were chiefly occasioned by 
the impending war which the accusers were bringing 
15 



114 THE CONSPIRACY OF 

on the country ; and the terms of raising them were 
rendered more oppressive by the insecurity their 
threats and the King's intrigues threw over the 
"existing order." 

There was no propagation of the revolution abroad, 
or danger to the life of the King at home, by the very 
confession of Morillo, during the insurrection of July. 
The government earnestly and energetically sup- 
pressed every symptom of insurrectionary violence, 
controlled the clubs, restrained by salutary laws the 
excesses of the press, and so carefully and delicately 
dealt with the King's inclinations, so anxiously avoided 
even the appearance of restraint on his person or 
of opposition to his wishes, that against the opin- 
ion and remonstrances of the Cortes, they continued 
the opponents of the constitution appointed by the 
King in the most important military posts, till their 
moderation was their ruin. They fell victims of a vile 
conspiracy, because they too much shrank from being 
what they were charged with being. What England 
would have been, if Parliament had continued 
Charles at the head of government — what France 
would have been, had Louis conducted the defence 
of the country against the European coalition — that 
Spain became, because her moderation stopped short 
of their examples. Europe combined against France 
because she did, and crushed Spain because she did 
not depose and fetter her crowned and anointed 
traitor. 

There remains then, nothing as the cause of the 
war, but the single fact, that Spain had freely estab- 
lished a constitution, moderate in principle, conser- 



LAYBACH AND VERONA. 115 

vative in its administration, resting on the popular 
will, yet leaving ample prerogatives in the hands of 
the King for the due administration of the laws and 
his own protection; only controlled by the responsi- 
bility of the ministry, and the restraints of every free 
constitution. Against this the war was waged. It 
was waged to destroy the example of a free and 
peaceful government, which despots called revolution- 
ary. It was undertaken, because it was at last 
fully felt and seen, with all the clearness of the logic 
of history, that free ideas were dangerous playthings. 
They soon grew from pets to masters. They were 
inconsistent with the existence of neighboring des- 
potism. They were a living light that would shine 
into the adjacent darkness, not because carried there, 
but because it is the nature of light to diffuse itself. 
It will dispel darkness — and this, to despotic power, 
was ruin. They therefore resolved to extinguish 
what they could not hide nor escape. To be free was 
the sin. The only atonement was death. With 
this, there is no reasoning but the sword. There is 
no law for it, none against it — but the law of self- 
defence. The Holy Allies would yield none of their 
power, and held fast to the central principle of their 
policy — the absolute, uncontrolled, and uncontrolla- 
ble sovereignty of the King; — and against whatever 
was inconsistent with this, they consistently waged a 
war of hate and extermination, under the name of 
revolutionary madness. 

We are equally settled in maintaining the sover- 
eignty of the people — their absolute and unlimited 
right to change their institutions at their pleasure — 



116 LAYBACH AND VERONA. 

and this is absolutely incompatible with the principle 
of the Holy Alliance. We must therefore be ready, 
not to argue, but to fight. These principles go to the 
foundation of civil society — they are the criteria of 
the rights of Kings and of men — there is no arbitra- 
ment but the sword. The allies had become con- 
scious of this, and acted with rigid and unflinching 
consistency. The Spanish ministry were deceived 
in supposing the pretexts to be the cause of the war, 
and they sacrificed their country by their blunder. 
With the blood and torture which signalized the 
triumph of Ferdinand, we have nothing to do. It 
is all included in the historical meaning of despotic 
power. We leave Spain weltering in her blood, for 
another field of agony, which rushes red upon the 
sight. 



SECTION III. 



THE REVOLT OF 



FRANCE AND POLAND 



AGAINST 



THE HOLY CONSPIRATORS 



THE REVOLT OF 

FRANCE AND POLAND 



AGAINST 



THE HOLY CONSPIRATORS. 



1 rom 1824 to 1830, the people of Europe sunk 
panting and exhausted from the fruitless conflict 
into restless repose, haunted by ghastly dreams, and 
oppressed by the nightmare of despotic power. 

While they slumbered, the eyes of all the Courts 
were fixed on the earthquake which shook the soil 
of the Turkish Empire, where Greek rebellion and 
Russian ambition threatened to shatter its decayed 
and tottering fabric. These events are not within 
the precise line of the contest between freedom and 
despotism, but they bear on and illustrate them. 

The preservation of order in Europe was only a 
means to an end with the Emperor of Russia. He 
wished repose in Western Europe, that he might 
without disquiet at home prosecute his schemes 
in the East. The death of Alexander in 1825 
changed the person, not the policy of the Emperor; 
and what was lost by the removal of one endeared to 



120 THE REVOLT OF 

his brother despots by relations of long personal 
friendship and the memory of common dangers and 
common triumphs, was more than compensated by the 
more vigorous and consistent politics of the Emperor 
Nicholas, his more clear appreciation of the necessities 
of the times, and his greater ability to meet them. 
He seized the moment when Turkey was left de- 
fenceless by the annihilation of the Janizaries, to wrest 
from her helplessness the treaty of Ackerman in 1826. 
Alexander had rejected the prayer of the Greeks for 
aid; Nicholas eagerly caught at the opportunity to 
weaken the Turk : and England and France, anxious 
to maintain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, 
were forced to appear on the side of Russia, dictating 
terms to the Porte for the purpose of setting bounds 
to the aggressions of the Czar. The famous interven- 
tion of England, France, and Russia, for the Greeks, 
sprang from no sympathy for their heroic cause, their 
barbarous sufferings, their historic renown, nor from 
any consideration of the debt of gratitude to their 
classic ancestors. While the people of Europe 
swayed to and fro with the varying fate of the war, 
and breathed earnest aspirations for the victory of the 
oppressed, the Governments of Europe were in the 
field, the battle of N,avarino was fought, the French 
army swept the Peloponnesus — not to defend the 
Greeks, not in the cause of liberty, but — for the pro- 
tection of the Ottoman Empire against the aggres- 
sions of the Russians, and its too great enfeeblement 
from the success of the Greeks. Russia was there, 
in spite of her horror of revolutionary violence, 
because Turkey was to be weakened through the 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 121 

success of the Greeks: England and France were 
there to see that Greece by the aid of Russia did not 
succeed too far. They preferred the maintenance of 
a shadow of the Ottoman Empire, to the creation of a 
strong vigorous Christian Kingdom covering ancient 
Greece and Macedonia, and capable of maintaining 
all the relations of peace and war — for fear that Rus- 
sia might augment her power. Yet by their usual 
temporizing policy they lost all the fruits of their in- 
tervention — and only postponed the inevitable day. 
They rested on their arms when they should have 
dared the utmost. Honest aid to the Greeks would 
have at once driven the Turks across the Bos- 
phorus, placed the political power in the hands of 
the Christian population, and raised a vigorous and 
firm power to bar the progress of Russia. They 
temporized till the battle of Shumla had left the road 
to Constantinople without a defender: and then, un- 
der the mediation of Prussia, permitted the treaty of 
Adrianople to sever the Danubian provinces from the 
Turkish Empire, under the paternal guardianship of 
Russia, to strip one bank of the Danube of its for- 
tresses, to exempt Russian subjects from Turkish 
jurisdiction, to burthen the Sultan with the over- 
whelming expenses of a war for his religion, his 
empire and his life. They only postponed the final 
consummation of the ambitious hopes of Russia for a 
few years in the life of nations. 

Such was the spirit of the famous, the lauded, the 
popular, intervention of France and England and 
Russia on behalf of Greece — a despicable political 
squabble between the Courts for political power. 
16 



122 THE REVOLT OF 

The treaty of Adrianople was concluded in 1829, 
under the impending threat of an English fleet in 
the Dardanelles, and of an Austrian army on the 
borders of Hungary. The Czar paused before such 
a combination, and postponed for a future day the 
realization of his dreams. 

He was on the threshold of 1830. Events were 
on the wing which would soon give employment to 
his sword in the holy cause of social order. 

Emboldened by the impunity which attended the 
outrage on Spain, the Bourbons of France struck for 
the absolute power of their ancestors. God hardened 
the heart of Charles — as formerly of Pharaoh — that 
he might draw down on him resistless wrath. The 
restored exile had learned no wisdom : and he tried 
beyond the point of submission the patience of his 
people. The charter was itself a fraud on the na- 
tion. It professed to emanate from the grace of the 
sovereign, who reigned by the grace of God. It 
gave the semblance rather than the reality of free- 
dom. Yet the spirit of even its niggardly conces- 
sions had always been the plaything of the royal 
caprice. Its words had become elastic in the hands 
of his ministers : till emboldened by past impunity, he 
violated its very letter, and abrogated by the decrees 
of July, the most essential rights of speech and of 
the press. This was the fatal spark. The mine 
exploded in the revolution of the three days of 
July. 

All Europe trembled in sympathy — as if an earth- 
quake rolled by. 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 123 

Germany ever oppressed and patient, uttered a 
groan and turned uneasily beneath her burthen. 

Belgium, forced into unnatural and ruinous union 
with Holland, summoned the energies of long dis- 
content for a final blow ; asserted her independence : 
and, in September 1830, drove their King beyond 
the borders. 

Poland, wearied with the oppressions and outrages 
of Russian insolence, sprang to her feet, as the thun- 
der of the western revolutions seemed to sound the 
fatal hour. In November 1830, she expelled from 
her capital the tools of her perjured tyrant — and, 
with arms in her hands, summoned her children to 
consult for her welfare. 

The revolution of July was the precise case con- 
templated by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle. The 
Bourbons, for whose restoration all Europe had been 
in arms, had been again expelled by revolutionary 
violence. They were parties to the Holy Alliance, 
they had shed the blood of liberty in its cause, and 
now were victims of their devotion to its principles. 
They did not appeal in vain to their confederates. 

Nicholas, promptly on the news of the revolution, 
took measures for its suppression. The Polish army 
was put on the war footing. On the 18th of August, 
orders were transmitted to Warsaw for the requisite 
funds. Masses of Russian troops were crowding to 
the Polish frontiers. General Diebitsch had been 
sent to Berlin; and the campaign was concerted to 
commence on the Rhine — which of course involved 
the alliance of Prussia. The news of the breaking 
out of the conflagration in Belgium was an additional 



124 THE REVOLT OF 

admonition of the danger of delaying to extinguish 
the flames before they spread. The obsequiously 
cringing letter of Louis Philippe of the 19th of 
August was written after war was resolved on : and 
the scornfully evasive reply of Nicholas would, by 
any other prince, have been treated as its declaration. 
Louis Philippe trembled on his throne, feared to 
appeal to his people, and continued by hesitation to 
compromise his dignity, till Poland lifted her majestic 
arm against the foe he feared. 

She was scarcely the shadow of her former self. 
Her spirit burned brightly — but her arms were 
drained of their life-blood. She stood alone sur- 
rounded by the waste of despotism— a withered leaf- 
less lifeless trunk, reft of her fairest boughs, stretching 
her bare arms to heaven in vain invocation of its 
mercy — drawing down on her thrice devoted head 
the lightnings of Russian wrath, which the Czar had 
gathered to hurl against the newborn liberties of 
France. 

At the council board of the Congress of Vienna 
one place was vacant. It was a void which might be 
felt. It could not be forgotten that Poland was not 
there. Her ghost still hovered before the memo- 
ries of her murderers searing their eyeballs, and 
would not down at their bidding — till due reverence 
had been done to her manes. 

Such was the power of her name, the importance 
of her enslaved children, the agony of Europe as 
remorse pointed to the folly which sacrificed her — 
that the first article of the final Treaty of Vienna is 
dedicated to her re-instatement among the powers of 
Europe. 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 125 

That article stipulated for the erection of the 
Grand Duchy of Warsaw into the Kingdom of 
Poland — whose crown should rest on the head of the 
Czar. To him it was declared bound by its constitu- 
tion: and it was solemnly stipulated that the Poles 
within the three Empires of Russia, Austria, and 
Prussia, should obtain a representation and national 
institutions, to be regulated according to the political 
principles which the Government to which they 
belonged should judge useful and convenient. 

This solemn stipulation, introducing the long train 
of adjustments on which the peace and independence 
of Europe were made to depend, was not intended 
to be mere verbiage. It had a political import, an 
international significance, indicated by its prominent 
position. It is perfectly well known to have been 
the result of long negotiations, of conflicting claims, 
of reciprocal distrusts quieted by mutual concessions; 
and that in this article pretensions found their solu- 
tion which threatened to re-open the wars of Europe, 
and had actually led to secret re-unions against the 
exclusive voracity of Russia. 

The parties to the treaty therefore meant — what 
their language imports, and what is well known in 
the history of Europe — not to incorporate Poland 
into the body of the Russian Empire, but — to pre- 
serve its nationality, while they united its crown 
with that of Russia on the head of the Czar. They 
meant to create a separate and independent political 
body — united by the head of the common Emperor. 
The relations of Scotland or Hanover to England, of 
Hungary to the Imperial Crown of Austria, were the 



126 THE REVOLT OF 

models. The object was — to raise a barrier however 
feeble against the western ambition of the Czar — 
to stay at its lowest point the augmentation of his 
power which must flow from the possession of Poland. 
The plan was — to preserve intact and fresh the na- 
tional feeling, the historic memory, the traditional 
spirit of the Pole by means of national institutions 
and constitutional guarantees. 

So Alexander understood the treaty, and in its 
spirit was the constitutional charter framed, which he 
promulgated on the 27th of November 1815. It 
declared the Kingdom of Poland united by its con- 
stitution to Russia: in conformity with it alone the 
sovereign authority should be exercised: the solem- 
nities of a coronation at Warsaw and of an oath to 
observe the charter were the slender bonds on the 
royal conscience: but the substance of a free govern- 
ment was embodied in the perpetual representation 
consisting of the King and the two chambers of the 
Diet, wherein resided the power of taxation and legis- 
lation: and the national army of Poland decorated 
with national military orders, and severed from the 
Russian service, was at once the emblem and the sup- 
port of her perpetual and living sovereignty. 

Such a constitution was sufficient any where but 
beneath the Upas shadow of Russian despotism. 

With soft words and fair promises Alexander 
opened in 1818 the Polish Diet. He held out the 
hope of the re-union of the great provinces which 
formed the Poland of history, as the reward of good 
conduct. He complimented the independence which 
rejected a proposal of the government : and adjourned 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 127 

the Diet with bright hopes for the future. But a 
cloud came over the sky. Italy had been shaken by 
revolutionary violence, and the absolute sceptre had 
been wrested from the hand of Ferdinand. Alex- 
ander had disregarded the limitations of constitutional 
power, and he sought to control the restless discon- 
tent of the Poles by a more efficient or more subser- 
vient judiciary armed with a more summary code. 
The Diet of 1820, in the spirit of the English 
Barons, refused to exchange the open procedure 
and jury trial of the French for the secret and 
prompt proceedings of the Imperial code. The 
smile of favor was darkened by the frown of dis- 
content. His Majesty took it ill that the freedom 
he had conferred should venture to thwart him. 
He closed the Diet in the utmost indignation at their 
presumption: and admonished them of the serious 
consequences which might follow the spread of so 
unseemly a disposition. 

The more his Majesty saw of free government the 
less he liked it. He got tired of playing at free gov- 
ernment when his people refused to consider it a 
plaything. He had dreamed of complacent Diets, 
docile judges, a complimentary press. He had looked 
with patriarchal eyes on an obedient people — whose 
freedom would find its best reward in conformity 
to his will, and who in case of unhappy differences 
would exemplify their grateful acknowledgments by 
cheerful self-denial. He had painted the constitution 
in his fancy as the best support of the burthen of 
an absolute crown — not limiting its illimitable and 
heaven-derived powers, but a subordinate aid in 



128 THE REVOLT OF 

their administration. To oppose his will, thwart 
his views, criticise his policy, reject his proposals — 
these things were not freedom, but its seditious 
excesses not far removed from revolutionary vio- 
lence. The Poles in his view were like the Roman 
freedman — liable for ingratitude to be again reduced 
to bondage : and not to do his bidding was the height 
of ingratitude. He did not see — he had to learn 
from experience, from Metternich's sinister commen- 
taries, and his logical pursuit of principles to their 
results — that two sovereign powers in one State are 
as contradictory as two Gods in Heaven. If the 
King be absolute the people must be nothing. If 
the people are associated in the exercise of sov- 
ereignty, its attributes must follow it and fall on 
the heads of its possessors. These lessons he 
learned — and never forgot. He loved freedom — but 
he hated its exercise. He was the friend of liberty 
while it was complacent; but when oppression and 
misrule had stung it to madness, he turned in fury 
on his pet, and died frowning hate upon the work of 
his own hands. 

Ere Alexander's death in 1825, the oppressions of 
his tools had driven Poland to the verge of rebellion. 
Nicholas saw the political blunder of the constitution, 
and reluctantly swore at his coronation to observe 
and maintain it — only because perjury was less dan- 
gerous than civil commotion prematurely provoked, 
and its refusal might be met by armed resistance. 
But injuries and outrages had sunk too deep in the 
minds of the Poles, in ten years of misrule, to be 
obliterated by an additional perjury. 






FRANCE AND POLAND. 129 

From the grant to the revocation of the constitu- 
tion^ its existence was only a name. Its most solemn 
provisions were perpetually set at naught — as if they 
did not exist. The first act of Alexander was the 
appointment of the Grand Duke Constantine com- 
mander in chief of the national army of Poland — in 
the very teeth of the constitution; and with that 
illegal post he conferred an undefined and despotic 
power to which no legal limit could be assigned, 
and for which no authority of law existed. Nom- 
inally above him, in reality his tool, was placed 
Zajaczek as Viceroy of Poland — a feeble irresolute 
old man, a fit veil for the arbitrary and illegal admin- 
istration of Constantine and his assistant in iniquity 
Nowosilzovv. This national administration bent all 
its energies to the annihilation of Polish nationality ; 
and the means were indifferent, so that the end 
were reached. Every manifestation of national feel- 
ing, of manly freedom, or restlessness under illegal 
oppression was the excuse and the occasion for more 
stringent measures. The Grand Duke was a member 
of the first Diet, when the freedom of the press, the 
abolition of the police and the spies, the removal of 
high officers stained by high crimes, were the topics 
of vigorous debate shocking to despotic ears; and 
the Diet was ordered to conform to the opinion of 
the Duke. Armed men surrounded their sittings — to 
exemplify the freedom of debate. The voice of re- 
monstrance died away in their hall — or fell on the 
ears of laughing minions to whom alone the police 
gave tickets of admission. The presumption of the 
press was punished by a stringent and stifling censor- 
17 



130 THE REVOLT OF 

ship. The members of the Diet who dared to com- 
plain of their wrongs were denounced as turbulent, 
and excluded by violence from the sittings. The 
publicity of their deliberations was arbitrarily taken 
away. Indignities led to conspiracies; and conspira- 
cies to spies — who swarmed through the land noting 
every chance word, and denouncing the best and 
noblest of the nation : and close on their heels trode 
the police with arbitrary searches, illegal arrests, un- 
explained and indefinite imprisonments, secret and 
summary executions. The constitution was a word, 
a name, a mockery, to the tools of despotism — who 
gnashed at the legal restraint on their outrages, 
denounced the constitution as an impediment to the 
administration of government and the course of jus- 
tice, and elevated to the dignity of principle of their 
policy the maxim — that "the Grand Duke is the 
best constitution." 

The countrymen of Kosciusko thought war better 
than that peace — death better than that life. A wide 
spread rebellion was disconcerted by the sudden death 
of Alexander. The elevation of Nicholas doubled 
the necessity for one. The revolt at St. Peters- 
burg was extinguished in some of the best blood of 
Russia and of Poland. But the blood of the martyrs 
was the seed of liberty. New men and new plans 
filled the places of the departed. The time for the 
final blow was fixed by the approaching war against 
France and the consequent removal of the Polish 
army. A temporary excitement hastened the out- 
break which, appointed for December the 10th, 
occurred on the 29th of November. 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 131 

On that night Constantine was expelled from the 
capital of Poland. 

Chlopicki was by acclamation named dictator. He 
sought safety in negotiation, in delay, in deputations, 
in conditions. Two precious months fled unim- 
proved. He refused to rouse the great Polish Pro- 
vinces — till masses of Russian troops were encamped 
in their midst. He suppressed by force the popular 
violence which broke out on the reception of the 
Imperial proclamation : and even then refused to 
abandon his temporizing policy. He feared by energy 
to get beyond the reach of reconciliation: and did 
not venture to hope for success. He finally was 
compelled to renounce the dictatorship; and Prince 
Czartoriski and Radzevil divided between them 
the civil and military departments. 

While Chlopicki negotiated, Nicholas armed. The 
delegates returned with the peremptory demand of 
submission. The Diet considered this the close of 
the door of reconciliation. Energetic measures for 
defense were taken. The proposal was made to 
depose the house of Romanoff": but men shrank from 
that irrevocable step. One of the deputies, Jesierski, 
repeated the insolent words of Nicholas, scratched on 
the margin of their memorial: "Je suis roi de 
Pologne, je la roulerai. Le premier coup de canon 
tire par les Polonais aneantira la Pologne." That 
dispelled every doubt; they flung away the deadly 
hope of conciliation; declared the deposition of the 
Czar, and grasped with vigorous hand the sword 
as their only safety. 



132 THE REVOLT OF 

The temporizing policy of Chlopicki inspired Nich- 
olas with hopes of easy success. His tone was lofty 
and dictatorial while Poland deliberated. He turned 
pale before her final resolution. He had supposed 
her troubles could only impede his march to the 
theatre of western war, postpone for a month the 
opening of the campaign, and transfer the scene of 
operations from the Rhine to the Elbe. Such was 
Diebitsch's boastful menace to the Polish deputies. 
But the stern face of her patriot armies boded more 
than a military brush. Discipline, and arms, and 
devotion, are dangerous elements to encounter. Suc- 
cess however certain must be bought dearly, with 
blood, and treasure, and time — and triumph would 
leave deep scars on the Empire and in the minds of 
his subjects. He would now have negotiated. He 
could not retreat without ruin. An energetic remon- 
strance, backed by military force, in the name of 
France or of England, could have secured all the 
Poles had demanded, saved the integrity of the 
treaty of Vienna, and preserved Poland from annihi- 
lation. Neither the spirit, nor the will, nor the policy, 
nor the statesman's prescience existed in either. 
The hearts of the people were right, and beat with 
fervid hope for their suffering fellows. The rulers 
and cabinets of England and France were blind and 
dull with selfish aspirations and dynastic ambition. 

Nicholas had promptly recalled his ambassador 
from the Court of France, upon the revolution. He 
had scornfully repelled the cringing advances of 
Louis Philippe. He had prepared to war upon his 
throne in behalf of his rival, and in combination 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 133 

with Prussia. These facts were communicated to 
Louis Philippe in December by the Polish govern- 
ment, with the official correspondence of the Russian 
government by which they were proved. He knew 
that the Polish revolution was the sole impediment 
to an immediate attack ; that its close would leave 
him exposed to the imminent danger of a Russian 
invasion. A bold policy could have saved him for 
the time, and seated him firmly on the throne and in 
the affections of the people of France. The people 
stormed the chambers and the King with petitions for 
Poland, and for armed intervention. They burned 
with hatred of Russian despotism and were eager to 
retaliate the indignities of their invasion. The Poles 
were destined for the vanguard of the invasion of 
France. They wheeled upon their sovereign, and 
became the vanguard of France against her deadliest 
foe: and, though Louis Philippe knew that their 
army was the sole barrier between his throne and 
Russian invasion, he repressed the ardor of his peo- 
ple by his calculating, selfish and obsequious policy. 
He preferred to reign by the favor of despots, rather 
than to dictate the law to them in the name of his 
people. He curried favor with Nicholas by allowing 
him to designate the French minister he would 
accept. Mortemart was charged by all means to 
secure the favor of the Czar. Poland was left to 
her fate, that Louis might reign by the leave of 
Nicholas; and her envoys were mocked by the fruit- 
less sympathies and timid intercession, which Morte- 
mart was charged to whisper with prudent reserve in 
the imperial ear. A cowardly wisdom threw away 



134 THE REVOLT OF 

the hopes of Europe, and left a noble and devoted 
people to the tender mercies of the Tartar horde. 
England's heart was fat with the good things of the 
world, and too gross to beat in sympathy with Polish 
sufferings. She had commercial treaties and good 
understanding with the Emperor; and her mercantile 
views could not be seduced even where generosity- 
was the highest policy. She did not, or would not 
see, that the battle of Constantinople could be fought 
on the plains of Poland. She contented herself with 
debating the reform bill, and keeping France out of 
Belgium — while Russia broke down the barriers of 
the treaty of Vienna, and grasped the power which 
England had at the Congress avowed her readiness 
to wrest from him by arms. 

Deserted by mankind, this heroic people trusted in 
God, their sword, and their cause. With the mili- 
tary details of that stupendous conllict, whose vary- 
ing events exalted with hope or wrung with agony 
the heart of Christendom for the fate of her earliest 
defender — I cannot now deal. I only draw the les- 
son which all history confirms. Poland fell — because 
her patriots trusted in moderation — because while 
free nations sympathized, despotism armed — and 
while they protested, despotism struck. 

Unequal as were the numbers of the parties, cour- 
age and devotion more than overbalanced the dispar- 
ity. Chlopicki's delays had driven Poland to the 
defensive, deprived her of the aid of the northern 
provinces, and made her soil the seat of war. 
Diebitsch crossed the frontier with treble numbers, 
fulminating boastful proclamations and furious threats, 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 135 

in February. Ere its close, on the plains of Grochow, 
the Poles with a third of his numbers scattered his 
army and drove him across the frontiers. Such is 
the power of liberty from Marathon to Sarmatia. 

With reinforced power again, in March, Diebitsch 
renewed the struggle, with scarce better success; the 
confines of the Kingdom were the scene of war ; and 
the provinces were beginning to be restless spectators 
of the struggle. 

The stern and stubborn defense of her people 
raised up for Poland a strange defender — from a 
strange and unexpected quarter. One of the Holy 
Allies began to fear the fraternal hug of his northern 
brother. Austria had stood ready to cross the road 
of Russia to Constantinople. Prince Metternich 
saw — what England did not — that the inevitable bat- 
tle had better be decided in Poland. He rejoiced at 
the unexpected opportunity of creating, in the King- 
dom of independent Poland, a real and effectual bar- 
rier against the threatening ascendancy of Russia. 
He could not breathe freely within the comprehen- 
sive embraces of Russia, sweeping from Gallicia to 
the mouths of the Danube, in acknowledged sove- 
reignty; and extending her control with an indefi- 
nite authority over the Danubian principalities to the 
passage of the river from Hungary. He shuddered 
beneath the chill shadow of Russian protection — 
more than he trembled before the fiery spirit of the 
revolution. Metternich saw in the battles of Febru- 
ary and March the elements of a power equal to the 
brunt of a Russian onset. Russia had sacrificed her 
horror of revolution to her rapacity, and supported the 



136 THE REVOLT OF 

Greeks that she might weaken the Turk. Prince 
Metternich profited by the example he had opposed, 
and retaliated on Nicholas his insidious policy. He 
devised a scheme to weaken the Czar by succoring 
the Pole : and to relieve the Austrian Empire from the 
pressure of the Colossus of the north by the creation 
of a firm support. He acted cautiously, circum- 
spectly — with a sharp look to a possible failure and a 
keen sense of the dangers of discovery. He sug- 
gested to the Polish government, that his master was 
not disinclined to aid in the establishment of Polish 
independence, under an Austrian Prince, with Galli- 
cia to augment his territory — if France and England 
would concur in the proposal. Louis Philippe did 
not repulse, but he did not accept the Austrian over- 
ture. He declined to entertain it unless it met the 
favor of England. Palmerston, the liberal and the 
lighting minister, then guided the foreign affairs of 
England — but alas ! in a different spirit from that of 
Canning. His eye could see no foe but France whose 
aggrandizement could threaten England. His soul 
was absorbed in preventing France from acquiring a 
part of Belgium. He was tangled in the inextricable 
mesh of the London conferences. He could aspire 
to nothing beyond elevating one of the house of Saxe 
Coburg to the Belgian throne. 

Before so momentous an object, the cries of suffer- 
ing Poland, the rights of constitutional government, 
the aggrandizement of Russia, the balance of power 
of Europe, the integrity of the treaties of Vienna — 
were as dust in the balance. Besides — the best 
understanding existed between His Majesty of 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 137 

England and His Majesty of all the Russias. > These 
tender ties he could not lacerate in any sentimental 
cause of human suffering or human liberty. Belgium, 
supposing herself safe when her King was expejled, 
had fallen among thieves who strove by guile to filch 
her freedom. A treaty of eighteen articles embodied 
the obnoxious conditions on which her. independence 
would be tolerated by the London Conference. The 
assembly at Brussels sturdily repelled them as humili- 
ating and insolent. But they had a fellow feeling 
for their suffering brethren of Poland, and were 
willing to sacrifice something for their success. It 
was intimated that a favorable consideration of the 
Polish case might reconcile the Brussels Assembly to 
the "eighteen articles;" and Palmerston refusing a 
formal engagement, yet dropped hints which might 
mislead but could not bind, that the acceptance of 
the "eighteen articles" would be a great service to 
Poland and her cause : and Talleyrand promised in 
that event to renew the overtures to the British Cabi- 
net. The suggestion produced the acceptance of 
the articles; but the note of Talleyrand met with a 
refusal of polished insolence from Palmerston; and 
Metternich and Louis Philippe hastened to abandon 
a project which might call down on them the indig- 
nation of their master, if discovered. The benefit 
to Poland was — the delay which precipitated her 
overthrow. 

To this day, Poland, supplying by heroism the defi- 
ciencies of numbers, had more than maintained her 
cause. She had foiled the advance of the enemy on 
the right of the Vistula, and defied his approach to 
18 



138 THE REVOLT OF 

the fortress of Praga. Cholera or poison had 
removed Diebitsch. Paskewitch was rushing to fill 
his place and supply his losses with the fame and the 
army of the Asiatic frontier. He transferred his 
troops to the left bank of the Vistula in July, and lei- 
surely prepared without molestation for the final con- 
flict. An inexplicable paralysis had seized the Polish 
Dictator. Skrzynecki lay on his arms for two fatal 
months — -deaf to the cries for battle which greeted 
his appearance in the camp, and covered by suspicions 
of the most disheartening character. He failed to 
assail the Russian army in its dangerous and difficult 
movement round Modlin as a centre — when a deci- 
sive blow could have finished the contest — or wrested 
tolerable terms from the Czar. The right bank of 
the Vistula was stripped of the enemy and the road 
to the Provinces was open and unguarded. A simple 
march would have called to his standard thousands of 
eager recruits and doubled his efficient force. Yet 
he rested in vile repose, till his people's spirit rusted, 
till the foe advanced to the shock, and the fires of 
death were lighted on the last battle field of Poland. 
Skrzynecki temporized till he was hemmed in by 
overwhelming forces, and till the peremptory order 
of the Diet forced him to resume operations. He 
was waiting the result of the negotiations in London, 
which Lord Palmerston's ambiguous words had taught 
the Polish envoy to anticipate; and which he had 
induced Skrzynecki to rely on. The messenger 
was sent with the knowledge, at the expense, 
and on the suggestion of the Cabinet of Louis 
Philippe, — to relax the energies and suspend the 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 139 

activity of the Poles with the vain hopes of negotia- 
tions and good terms. 

Skrzynecki did not know that Cabinets are a vain 
trust for freedom; that desperation is the only safety 
for those who draw the sword against a despot; that 
moderation had ruined Spain and must ruin Poland; 
that atonement was impossible. To fight and to 
die — the example of Thermopylae, and the immor- 
tality of fame — was all that was left them. The day 
of grace was gone. The day of victory was passed. 
Nemesis and despair alone ruled the hour. Dem- 
binski's immortal retreat to the field of battle cast 
into the shade that of Xenophon's ten thousand; and 
heroes of more than human mould enacted, beneath 
the battlements of Warsaw, the deeds without the for- 
tune of Marathon. Peace be with their ashes — 
immortality to their names ! ! 

The third battle of light and darkness was closed. 
Grim despotism glared over the land. English indif- 
ference contented itself with the Czar's assurances 
that he would restore the constitution, preserve the 
nationality, and guarantee the rights of the Poles. 
The victory obliterated the promises from the Impe- 
rial memory. He had tested the indifference of the 
Cabinets of Europe. If they would not aid the 
Poles in arms, they would scarcely renew the war for 
their constitution. Louis Philippe was on his good 
behaviour for his crown. Palmerston confessed the 
outrage, but considered the matter not important 
enough to call for English intervention. Nicholas 
acted on these dispositions. In February 1832 — 
having trampled out the last spark of resistance — his 



140 THE REVOLT OF 

edict of abrogation appeared. He reversed the 
political blunder of Alexander. He reduced Poland 
to a province of the Empire, annulled the constitu- 
tion he had so recently but so reluctantly sworn to 
observe, dispersed the Polish soldiers throughout the 
Russian army, and ploughed up the very foundations 
of her nationality of a thousand years, consecrated 
by heroic deeds in the cause of Christianity and of 
civilized Europe — whose Kings looked on her ruin 
with tearless indifference. 

The axe, the gibbet, the knout, the mines, the 
dungeon, — the trains of fainting pilgrims toiling to 
Siberia — the blood and smoke of ravaged cities 
guilty of the sin of liberty — why mention these 
things in the land of "social order," beneath the 
paternal sway of the inexorable enemy of "revolu- 
tionary madness?" 

It is difficult to estimate the enormity of this com- 
pound of cowardice, folly, and crime. 

All Europe was a party to the treaty which stipu- 
lated for the constitution. No one contemplated a 
grant revokable at will. Even despots admit in the- 
ory the validity of a treaty with a foreign power — 
whatever scruples they may entertain as to the possi- 
bility of binding their sovereign freedom by charters 
to their people — and Russia had led the Van of the 
crusade on liberty with the cry of the sacredness of 
treaties on her lips. Yet no one lifted Voice or hand 
to prevent or to punish this gross invasion at once of 
the rights of nations, the obligations of a treaty, and 
the sanctity of an oath — though, being only a royal 



FRANCE AND POLAND . 141 

oath, it must be taken with many grains of allowance, 
and was hardly worth a war. 

The balance of power of Europe was at stake. 
The proposition of Austria was a simple and effectual 
curb to the menacing aggrandizement of Russia, and 
recommended by every consideration of humanity and 
of policy. The Poles alone had more than sustained 
the weight of their enemy; and before the proposed 
intervention, Russia must have succumbed almost with- 
out a struggle. So urgent were the circumstances, that 
one of the leaders of the Holy Alliance made the 
proposal and offered to contribute a province to the 
Kingdom. Yet England and France — the two free 
powers of Europe, alone interested in the mainte- 
nance of constitutional liberty, — refused their counte- 
nance, and left their powerful natural ally to sink 
unaided beneath the stabs of their common enemy. 

The fall of Poland settled the results of the revo- 
lutions of 1830. Belgium was severed from Hol- 
land — but passed under the surveillance of the Holy 
Allies stripped of the attributes of sovereignty, and 
only tolerated under bonds for good behaviour. 
Restless and feverish Italy sprang to her feet — but 
her despicable princes stretched out supplicating 
hands to Austria for help they could not afford them- 
selves; and her bayonets prostrated the revolution ere 
it was erect. — Again order reigned in Europe amid 
the silence of the grave, unbroken save by the groan 
of the captive in his cell — the muttered curse of the 
oppressed who cast his agonizing glance to heaven 
for the aid mankind refused. The long and weary 



142 THE REVOLT OF 

years dragged on till the cup of wrath was again full 
to overflowing. 

The people of France and England were on fire 
to rush to the aid of Poland. But the history of the 
last thirty years has been that of a combination of 
Kings against the people; and Poland is only one of 
many victims of the conspiracy. Terrible indignation 
burst out in England at the melancholy sound of her 
funeral dirge. Tears, and sadness, and the silence of 
the plague, reigned over Paris. The theatres, the 
shops, the marts of commerce were deserted. The 
people forgot their own misery in the fall of Warsaw. 
They were as the people of Athens on that evening 
when the occupation of Elatea was announced — or 
when the fugitives of Choeronea entered the city. It 
was as if another Waterloo overwhelmed them with 
its agony. Yet the Kings were placid, smiling, quiet 
and unconcerned — the ministers parried with a joke 
or a sophism the interpellations of Parliament and the 
Chambers. England was absorbed in her merchan- 
dise. Louis Philippe was nursing his infant crown. 
Nicholas improved the opportunity of their indif- 
ference to rid himself of a thorn in the side, and 
his frontier of a dangerous quicksand. He firmly 
planted his foot on what before was a treacherous 
bog — and, in the attitude of advance, stood ready 
to assert by diplomacy or by arms his newly founded 
supremacy in Europe. 

His eye was fixed on Louis Philippe — who quailed 
beneath its glance — and deprecated its ire. He did 
his best to deserve his pardon for the presumption of 
wearing a crown. The price for his toleration was, 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 143 

the bridling of the revolution. Perhaps the Autocrat 
was softened by his abandonment of Poland. Per- 
haps he thought the cost of deposing him would 
exceed the benefit. He admired his adroit manage- 
ment of the factions. For the eighteen years of Louis 
Philippe's inglorious reign — France ceased to be felt 
as a power in Europe. So disgusted were her peo- 
ple with his rule, that none were found to lift a 
hand in defense of him or his dynasty. In spite of 
his skillful jockeyism so insecure was his seat that he 
tumbled at the first jostle — like a child from a wild 
horse. He was pardoned because he was powerless 
for mischief, of a quiet and orderly disposition — took 
care of his family and left Nicholas to take care of 
the world — and withal made an excellent police con- 
stable for maniac France. 

The humiliating reign of Louis Philippe was a 
long preparation for its violent close. The elder 
Bourbons were re-seated on the throne against the 
will of France. They signalized their triumph by a 
fraudulent charter which cheated the people out of 
the fruits of twenty years of revolution; and finding 
even its restraint intolerable, they drew down the 
national indignation by adding to perpetual disregard 
of its spirit the most despotic outrages againt its let- 
ter, and the rights and feelings of the nation. Louis 
Philippe assumed the vacant crown at the call of the 
leaders of the revolution of July. The nation was 
not consulted in his elevation. His rule was acqui- 
esced in on the faith of the guarantee of names dear 
and venerable to the French people, and only in 
expectation that his government would exemplify the 



144 THE REVOLT OF 

principles and breathe the spirit of those who had 
chosen him. He was regarded as the symbol of the 
national sovereignty — the personification of the peo- 
ple's right to control their own affairs. His crown 
was held by the tenure of conformity to this first 
principle of its origin. 

France had reached conscious political life — when 
a revolution meant more than a personal preference 
or dislike for a ruler. It was not a mere designation 
of who should be her master; but of the principles 
which should control her executive in wielding her 
power. She could tolerate no king who refused to 
abide by this law. 

There are two clearly defined states of political 
life — connected by a transition period of indefinite 
duration — and passing into one another through 
imperceptible shades. The one is before the nation 
have learned to have a will of their own on all public 
affairs; — their rulers are then the symbols of sove- 
reignty; their will is that of the people; and absolute 
monarchy is its natural form. The other is the 
offspring of advancing intelligence — when the people 
have learned to hold definite opinions on the 
conduct of affairs ; — this is the period of legal popular 
constitutional government; and none other is possi- 
ble — except at the point of the bayonet. The transi- 
tion period of balanced light and darkness is the equi- 
nox of the national cycle — the region of stormy revo- 
lutions, which may dissolve society into anarchy, or 
prostrate it at the feet of despotism. 

France had reached the day of political maturity 
when Louis Philippe accepted the crown, forfeited 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 145 

by Charles for violation of the fundamental law 
according to which alone kingly power was possible. 
He held it on condition of conforming to that principle. 
It involved the necessity of governing by ministers, 
whose policy should follow the popular will as 
expressed by the votes of the Chambers — regardless 
of that of the King. This is the fundamental condi- 
tion of the English monarchy, which, however it may 
strive to modify, never hesitates to obey the will of 
the people when once declared. To the existence of 
this system, a parliament accurately representing the 
will of the nation and not of a class is absolutely essen- 
tial. At best, it is a sorry contrivance to reconcile 
with an immovable head the fluctuating tides of popu- 
lar feeling. It is intended indirectly to attain the end 
of our elections — periodically expressing in an authen- 
tic form the will of the people on the conduct of 
their affairs. It was the misfortune or the sin of Louis 
Philippe that his reign was one unbroken violation of 
every condition on which his power rested. 

He was the symbol of the people's sovereignty, 
invested with their power, to do their will, for their 
benefit. He wielded that power to do his own will, 
for the consolidation of his dynasty. His fault was, 
the perversion of the powers of his high trust to 
selfish ends. His blunder was in supposing the best 
means of attaining even those ends lay in a policy 
which, at home, stifled every popular feeling, refused 
every concession, and punished by military execution 
or judicial proscription the ebullitions of discontent 
springing from disappointment — and abroad, bought 
peace at the cost of national humiliation, by cringing 
19 



146 THE REVOLT OF 

before every power which presented the alternative 
of concession or of war. His system was peace 
abroad — and war at home. 

The revolution of July was made by the people: 
yet their voice was never heard in their legislative 
halls. They were as powerless under the younger 
as under the elder Bourbons. The charter of Louis 
XVIII. confined the right of suffrage to persons 
assessed with three hundred francs in taxes. The 
charter of the revolution of July reduced the qualifi- 
cation to two hundred and forty francs. The value 
of the revolution to the people was sixty francs in 
the qualifications for voting. The revolution con- 
ferred on two hundred thousand persons alone, out 
of thirty-five millions, the right of electing the Cham- 
ber of Deputies, charged with expressing the legisla- 
tive will of France, and forming, in the political 
machine, the index for the regulation of the executive 
conduct. 

The exorbitant greediness of the upstart royalty 
disgusted the people. They remembered that a mil- 
lion and a half of francs had adequately remunerated 
the three consuls — whose head was the conqueror 
of Italy. They could not forget that the legiti- 
mate Bourbons were content with the moderate sum 
of four millions and a half. They cried out against 
the King of the barricades and of the bourgeoisie 
who demanded over twenty millions — which the 
complaisant chamber granted within a year of the 
revolution. They were continually scandalized by 
bickerings about allowances, claims for dotation, for 
apanage, for family establishments for the King's 



FRANCE AND POLAND. ]47 

numerous progeny at the expense of the nation. 
The press spoke the popular disgust: and the King 
pursued the editors with all the harshness of legal 
prosecutions armed with government power, with 
domiciliary visits and arbitrary arrests and seizures, 
which would have roused the phlegmatic spirit of 
the Briton to rebellion. 

That insurrections should accompany the change 
of dynasty was to be expected. The continuance 
of discontent after the acquiescence of the people 
accuses the faith and the competency of the gov- 
ernment. The press teemed with fierce denun- 
ciations of the retrogressive tendencies, and the 
harsh and arbitrary acts of the King. He smote the 
accuser on the mouth, for a charge he could not deny. 
The sale and distribution of pamphlets through the 
streets were subjected to the license of the police ; 
and Paris was stung to madness by the bloody and 
indiscriminate vengeance taken on a peaceable crowd 
assembled to procure them. The right of association 
is essential to liberty : and the public discontent had 
covered France with wide-spread organizations to 
maintain the rights of the people against the daily 
encroachments of the King. He sharpened the 
existing laws against them, abolished the distinction 
between periodical and occasional assemblies, leveled 
the same punishment against the leaders and the led, 
and transferred the cognizance of the accusation from 
the jury to the Court, in direct violation of the con- 
stitution. The people answered by the insurrections 
of 1834, which wrapped the Kingdom in flames — and 
which the King is accused of having fomented for 



148 THE REVOLT OF 

the benefit of suppressing them. The brutality of 
the execution lends countenance to the suggestion. 
Irregular and ill-organized insurrections flamed up 
without concert, and were extinguished in detail. 
Lyons was the centre and the leader : her punishment 
left her in blood and ruins. Paris was the scene of 
military executions more barbarous than any which 
the revolutionary republic visited on its foes. The 
Rue Transnonain is as eternally infamous as the 
republican baptisms of the Loire. The occasion was 
eagerly seized by the King to wrest from the national 
guards of the disturbed districts and cities their 
arms — ^whose only danger lay in his own misrule. 
Arbitrary imprisonments and searches, long confine- 
ments on suspicion without examination, harsh treat- 
ment and reckless cruelties characterized the govern- 
mental proceedings under pretext of suppressing or 
punishing the insurrections. The iron sank deep 
into the soul of the French people. The assassin's 
hand was armed again — and furnished the pretext 
for the arbitrary laws of September 1835 — which 
placed the liberty of the press and of the subject at 
the mercy of the King. The barriers of formality 
were swept away in prosecutions for rebellion, at the 
will of the prosecutor: only seven jurors were 
required to concur for conviction : and every publi- 
cation against the person of the King or the principles 
of the government subjected the offender to be pun- 
ished by heavy fines and severe imprisonment ! ! 

The bloody lesson of 1834 taught the people the 
wisdom of patience. They waited till the accumula- 
ted grievances should press the nation into one party. 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 149 

The King diligently pursued his advantages, relent- 
lessly wielded his legalized despotism, and eked out 
its deficiencies by corruption or by usurpation as the 
case required. The Chamber of Peers, the Courts, 
even the Deputies were his willing supporters. The 
rest of his reign was a war against the press, a series 
of prosecutions against freedom of thought, a strug- 
gle against the ever increasing demand for legislative 
reform. The press denounced the outrages of the 
King. He replied by state prosecutions. The coun- 
try got on the side of the persecuted editors; and 
jurors refused to find verdicts against them. The 
jury lists were tampered with — to secure enlightened 
jurors. Changes of venue evaded foreseen difficul- 
ties, and secured facile triumphs in well disposed 
districts. Obsequious Courts supplied the deficiencies 
of juries, and moulded the law to the exigencies of 
the case. They applied to prosecutions for publi- 
cations against public officers the rule of private 
libels; and in the face of the words of the law for- 
bad the truth to be pleaded in defense. The new 
assessments roused the passions and provoked resist- 
ance ; the press associated itself in the defense. Pro- 
secutions were repeatedly thrown out. The King 
and his ministers were mad against the editors. 
The Chamber of Peers was invoked. The attempt 
on the life of the Due d'Nemours was attempted to 
be fastened on Dupoty, the editor of the Journal du 
Peuple. He was prosecuted as an accomplice — that 
the blow might discredit the press. The evidence 
failed — yet the chamber condemned him for "compli- 
cite moral." French ingenuity left the clumsy contri- 



150 THE REVOLT OF 

vance of constructive treason far in the back ground. 
Dupoty was condemned — not because he had known 
or encouraged either the crime or the criminal — but 
because the criminal had read his paper, and his 
paper tended to defend the crime. Such madness 
betokens the end of dynasties. 

The same spirit presided at the suppression of the 
Polish anniversaries — of the reform banquets — of 
every outward expression of political feeling, or of 
national and popular memories. Petitions for elec- 
toral reform for eight years in vain poured in on the 
King and the Chambers. The one hundred and 
sixty-one officials in the Chambers, the officials 
swarming through the country out-numbering the 
voters, and the close corporation of the Chambers 
themselves sympathized with the fears, the hostility, 
the contempt of the King in regard to the people 
and popular government; and the petitions were 
scornfully rejected At last patience was exhausted — 
the burthens and increasing deficiencies of the revenue 
in time of peace exceeded the cost of the wars of 
Napoleon — and the disgust of the people left the King 
without support. Surrounded by his cherished army, 
and his gigantic fortifications, he was tumbled from 
his throne by a Parisian mob ! Some people call this 
an accident. I call it an inevitable, long prepared, 
and richly deserved fatality. 

Throughout his ignoble reign, France was the 
sport and mock of continental Europe; for Louis 
Philippe preferred his crown to his country, and he 
placed his safety in conciliating the contempt and 
quieting the fears of his legitimate neighbors. 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 151 

The most signal instance of his folly and cowardice 
was the abandonment of Poland — to buy the favor or 
the toleration of Nicholas. He assisted at the tangled 
intrigues of the London conferences to deprive Bel- 
gium of the fruits of her revolution, and France of 
the influence she could have won by supporting her. 
He coveted the throne tendered to his son — for it lay 
in the line of all his aspirations; yet he hastened to 
renounce it before the protest of England, in favor of 
one of England's creatures ; and France saw her own 
government a party to territorial arrangements which 
were aimed at her most cherished aspirations when 
about to be accomplished — without a protest or even 
a murmur. 

The absolute powers had commended to the 
Pope's consideration the propriety of yielding certain 
reforms and concessions to gratify and quiet his peo- 
ple and ensure the repose of Italy. His Holiness 
clung to his infallibility, and refused to stultify his 
government by a change. His people sought redress 
in insurrections, and the trembling Priest besought 
secular aid. The people of free France were scan- 
dalized to see the minister of Louis Philippe among 
the first to assure His Holiness of their aid to bring 
his rebellious subjects to unconditional submission. 
Austria anticipated him by the occupation of 
Bologna; and Louis Philippe, in an ecstasy of jeal- 
ousy, hastened to seize on the quiet and unoffending 
Ancona by way of innocent and safe bravado. 

The throne of Spain was disputed between a con- 
stitutional Queen and a legitimate pretender. The 
success of the latter would be a thorn in the crown 



152 THE REVOLT OF 

of Louis and in the side of France. He begged a 
subordinate place in the triple alliance of Spain, 
Portugal, and England, concluded behind his back, 
for the exclusion of the pretender. He posted an 
army of fifty thousand men at the Pyrenees; yet, in 
spite of his minister's advice, he repelled two earnest 
solicitations of both England and the Spanish Queen 
for help in the critical hour of the contest. He was 
ambitious of continental recognition; he dared not, 
for the interest of France, fire a gun against a legiti- 
mate pretender. 

Switzerland — the natural ally and impregnable 
defense of France — was an inconvenient refuge for 
the persecuted victims of Austrian tyranny. Metter- 
nich instigated Louis Philippe to bully the people 
who protected his own exile, for extending similar 
hospitality to others. The Due d'Orleans was suing 
for the hand of an Austrian princess; and Louis 
Philippe hastened to destroy the influence of France 
in Switzerland, by peremptorily demanding the exclu- 
sion of the political refugees, under a threat of armed 
intervention. When he was fully embroiled, Met- 
ternich had no hesitation in finding the match too 
unequal between a Prince of the July revolution and 
the daughter of a hundred Caesars. 

The progress of Mehemet Ali's arms threatened 
the Ottoman Empire on one side, as much as Russia 
menaced it on the other. England was interested in 
the control of the Isthmus of Suez; Russia, that no 
body else should seize Constantinople; France, that 
her ally, the Viceroy of Egypt, should consolidate a 
power over which her influence predominated. 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 153 

They were all parties to negotiations in London. 
With that studied contempt which Louis Philippe's 
peaceable disposition had so often provoked, Pal- 
merston and Nicholas announced the secret conclu- 
sion of a treaty from which France was excluded — 
for the purpose of imposing terms on the ambitious 
Pasha, to be enforced by arms if not acquiesced 
in. Louis Philippe was furious at the insult. He 
swore vengeance, and began to arm. All France 
rang with warlike preparation. Her people were on 
fire to punish English and Russian insolence, and sup- 
port the cause of the Pasha. Louis Philippe seized 
the opportunity, to increase his army of suppression, 
and to incarcerate the capital of France by fortifica- 
tions for the control of the populace. In the midst of 
his preparations, they were treated as a sham by the 
Allies — and Beyrout was bombarded. What all had 
anticipated came to pass. The French fleet was has- 
tily withdrawn to Toulon — for fear its aid might be 
invoked by the Viceroy. The insult was digested. 
Louis contented himself with his fortifications — and 
acquiesced in the settlement Russia and England had 
agreed on. 

So spiritless and powerless was his rule, that he 
paid the United States indemnity under the pending 
threat of President Jackson ; and it was the vigorous 
and resolute rejection of the treaty for the right of 
search by this country, which drove him, by the storm 
of popular indignation, to refuse the name of France 
to its ratification. He concluded the long drama of 
selfish aggrandizement at the expense of the honor 
and dignity of France, by consummating the Spanish 
20 



154 THE REVOLT OF 

marriages. He dared the risk of universal war for 
the advancement of his house, at the expense of 
France — when before, against her manifest interest and 
loudly expressed will, he had compromised her dig- 
nity and destroyed her influence by clinging to peace 
lest he might endanger his throne. Such a reign, 
tyrannical within and cowardly without, found a fit 
termination in a street fight — so destitute of friends 
that none was found to do battle for the dishonored 
crown. Europe had wondered at the firmness of his 
seat on a throne hitherto shaken by revolutions; 
and its astonishment was unspeakable at such a fall. 
But his repose was — the balance on the tight rope — 
wonderful only because it was precarious and difficult 
to maintain — yet such that a touch of a child could 
overthrow it. 

The restoration of the ashes of Napoleon to the 
bosom of France was his only popular act; and the 
enthusiasm it excited was the bitterest sarcasm on a 
reign which studiously shunned the glories of the 
Empire. 

Italy and Spain fell before the armed assaults of 
the Holy Allies of the North. The policy of the reign 
of Louis Philippe was the offspring of the terror they 
inspired. Nicholas despised the revolutionary royalty 
of Louis; but he met a stumbling block in the fiery 
Poles ; and his oriental ambition attracted him to easier 
and more fruitful fields. But he never more than tol- 
erated the upstart crown of the revolution of July; 
and he always nourished the hope of one day resum- 
ing the cross of the Holy Alliance against infidel and 
rebellious France — to tame her factions by the sword. 



FRANCE AND POLAND. 155 

Louis Philippe trembled before his threat, was too 
pusillanimous to repel it by an appeal to the spirit of 
his nation, and bowed the haughty head of France 
before the Muscovite, — for leave to wear his crown, to 
perpetuate his dynasty, to walk about a shadowy 
unsubstantial semblance of a King among the real 
Powers of Europe. For this poor privilege, he 
stooped to be the jailer of his people, and chained the 
terrible spirit of France, before whose untrammeled 
might his foes would have fled. 

Yet he could not hide a blush at the contrast 
between his position and his conduct. His wounded 
vanity took refuge from the humiliations of the pre- 
sent in the recollection of his illustrious descent : and 
found strange consolations for the contempt of Nich- 
olas in the oft repeated soliloquy: "Am not I the 
grandson of Louis XIV?" One would have sup- 
posed his eye would have turned away from the 
glories of the Grand Monarque, which must have 
recalled the fact that he was a slave on that throne 
where his grandfather was the arbiter of Europe. 

His faith was equal to his spirit. The King of 
the Barricades — the sworn monarch of a constitu- 
tional realm — spoke contemptuously of the people 
who honored him, and of the law he swore to observe 
and tried to annul. "Constitutions" — he said — 
"are the malady of the day. It will pass — but one 
must know how to treat it. The continental Kings 
shrink from it with terror — but as for me — I treat it 
after the homoepathic method, and that answers my 
purpose." He meant to say: — "The Kings of the 



156 REVOLT OF FRANCE AND POLAND. 

continent destroy liberty with the sword — J, by the 
safer and surer method of slow and deadly poison." 
He humbly claimed for himself the subordinate char- 
acter of the fox — and left the part of the lion to his 
masters. 

His long reign of eighteen years was a painful 
preparation for the era of revolutions. 



SECTION IV. 



THE REVOLT OF EUROPE IN 1848 



AGAINST TflE 



HOLY CONSPIRATORS. 



GERMANY. 



THE REVOLT OF EUROPE IN 1848 



AGAINST THE 



HOLY CONSPIRATORS 



GERMANY. 



During the whole reign of Louis Philippe the 
fear of the Holy Allies controlled the destiny of 
France. Before them her proud spirit was abased — 
till the cup of her indignation was full against the 
man who wore and disgraced her crown ; and then 
she rose and shook him off. 

The boasted power of Louis Philippe vanished 
like the morning cloud — dissolving into thin air with- 
out a flash of lightning or a roll of thunder to 
announce its departure. It was not even honored 
with a military burial — but fled before the hoots of 
a mob and the terrors of an evil conscience to hide 
itself in a dishonorable grave. 

France — relieved from the incubus — stood erect in 
her majesty and power — gigantic in her proportions — 
terrible in the glance of liberty — and hurling defiance 
at the powers who had dared to insult the hour of 



160 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

her humiliation. All Europe shook at the sound of 
her voice. It was the trumpet of the resurrection of 
imprisoned liberty. The giant lay beneath the 
mountain weights imposed on him at the great over- 
throw. From time to time weary of his constraint 
and panting beneath his burthen, his restlessness had 
moved kingdoms from their bases and shaken eldest 
dynasties. The time of his liberation now seemed 
fully come; and as he turned heavily in act to rise, 
the earthquake of 1848 passed along. Every mon- 
archy in Europe shook to its foundations; and from 
the seven hills of Papal Rome to the city of the 
Great Frederick, and from the Bay of Biscay to the 
Vistula, not a throne was left erect. Europe was 
covered with the ruins of her political edifices. The 
prison doors were shaken open and the captives were 
free. Their shackles were off, and their Kings were 
cringing in humble supplication before the people 
they had despised, insulted and oppressed. 

The signs of the times might have been read on 
the dial of the Vatican. Pius IX. the successor of 
Gregory, represented the progress of fifty years ; and 
his concessions to the spirit of the age were the off- 
spring of an urgent necessity. But like Louis XVI. 
he had evoked a spirit which he could not control, 
and whose power would not be stayed at the bounds 
he prescribed. Charles Albert had oscillated again 
to the side of freedom, and granted his subjects a 
fair constitution. The successor of Frederick the 
Great, after alternately spurring to madness and 
curbing to submission his patient people, had dis- 
guised his absolute power beneath the shadowy forms 



GERMANY. 161 

of constitutional rule. These things prepared the 
minds of the people for a step in advance; and the 
overthrow of Louis Philippe was the signal for the 
march. 

The rising of the people, the agitation of mind, 
the looking for of great events, were every where 
to be seen. In France only was the revolution abso- 
lute master of the field, and securely enthroned in 
power. Every where else the people forbore to 
exact from their Princes the extreme penalty of their 
iniquities; and they were left at the head of affairs 
armed with the powers of Government, which they 
prostituted to the overthrow of the people who mer- 
cifully spared their hour of weakness. The conflict 
began in guile, was waged under artful disguises by 
diplomacy, and was closed by the sword. Europe 
was one great battle-field where strove for the mastery 
the tyrants and the people. The battle swayed with 
various fortune on many fields. It was decided by 
a sudden blow in a distant and obscure corner of 
Europe. But the result of the movement depended 
on the success of the people of Germany; and that 
was wrapped up in the cause of Hungary. Success 
here gave the key to the field of Europe; and failure 
here rendered success on other points matter of detail 
determining nothing. For the contest was between 
the People and the Kings. Without the arm of Aus- 
tria, Italy could control her petty despots, and Ger- 
many could realize her longings for substantial unity. 
The independence of Hungary would have para- 
lyzed the arm of Austria for purposes of mischief; 
and, with United Germany under a free constitution, 
21 



162 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

would have opposed an impenetrable barrier to the 
arms and influence of Russia; while their proximity 
and example would have assailed her power in its 
citadel^ by weakening the hold of despotism in the 
minds of her people. To overthrow Hungary was 
therefore the shortest and safest method of arresting 
the progress of the revolution. To have assailed 
Prussia would have armed all Germany; and a mil- 
lion of bayonets would in a month have bristled on 
the frontiers. Russia did not care to waste her 
powder nor to endanger her success. She therefore, 
under cover of the Austrian invitation, entered Hun- 
gary as the ally of a German Power. The interven- 
tion was not felt as an assault on the people of Ger- 
many; her Kings could safely close their eyes to a 
campaign whose success must be for their advantage ; 
and, by their connivance and the apathy of their peo- 
ple, the contest was settled before they were conscious 
it had opened. The game was played with eminent 
skill ; the faith of Kings, their royal oaths and right 
royal perjuries, the simple confidence of the people 
and the decisive argument of the bayonet, concessions 
and soft words in the hour of weakness, retractions 
and defiance in the hour of returning strength, are 
the elements of the game. Their application for the 
suppression of freedom is one of the most instructive 
as well as the saddest pages of history. 

The result was ruinous to the rights of the people — 
and damning to the character of Kings. 

The details of the simultaneous rising of the peo- 
ple of Germany in each of her thirty states would be 
only the tedious repetition of the same events varied 



GERMANY. 163 

by circumstances of place and person. From Berlin 
to Vienna, from Frankfort to Dresden, in every king- 
dom and principality, the people rose as one man, 
inspired by the pervading spirit of liberty, and urged 
by the resistless yearnings after that national union 
embodied in a national representative government 
without which all local reforms were useless. 
They strove in their several states for the rights 
wiiich were at issue in our revolution : and as their 
only adequate guarantee, they were driven to contend 
at the same time for the great constitutional organiza- 
tion which we effected, in peace and quiet, ten years 
after the revolutionary storm had passed. 

The demands of the people, spontaneously pouring 
from the hearts of millions scattered over the length 
and breadth of the land, so simultaneous as to pre- 
clude the supposition of concert, so uniform as to 
indicate the pervading extent and depth of the griev- 
ances to be remedied and of the conviction as to the 
proper remedy — were almost entirely free from the 
excesses of revolutionary violence or radical reckless- 
ness. They partook of the eminent moderation of 
the German character, and betokened a political 
maturity in the people which was the best assurance 
of their competency to wield the powers they 
claimed. 

There were doubtless three parties. The conser- 
vative party clung tenaciously to the Metternich 
principle — "the existing order of things." The 
radicals stimulated with an unreal enthusiasm the 
republican spirit and blood-thirsty recklessness, without 
the courage and energy, or devotion and simplicity, of 



164 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

the school of Robespierre and Danton: but they were 
few, powerless, and insignificant, and always under 
the control of the Burgher guard — till the counter 
revolutionary tendencies of the governments sharp- 
ened their hostility into the madness of despair, and 
drove them into rebellion, which ended in disaster, 
and closed the scene of this memorable drama. The 
people of Germany,— they who demanded the rights 
of the nation and awed their rulers into submission, — 
were guilty of no such excesses. They were the 
great mass of the people — the sons of the men who 
rose in the war of liberation, — demanding the long 
deferred rewards of their valor. So universal was 
the upheaval, so lofty and threatening the wave 
which agitated Germany, so resistless the still might 
with which it lifted the thrones and dynasties of 
solidest mould and deepest foundation from their 
bases, that at once, almost without a collision of arms, 
certainly without more than enough to feel the 
weight and earnestness of the masses, Emperors, 
Kings, and petty Princes, at Vienna and Berlin not 
less than in Baden and Cassel, with one voice, but 
with various views, bowed their crowned heads be- 
fore the majesty of the national will. 

That will did not ask republican institutions, nor 
socialist theories, nor jacobin madness. It confined 
itself to the essential rights of free government, 
under monarchical forms, with the guaranties with- 
out which chartered concessions are only the will 
of the King for the moment. It demanded the free- 
dom of the press from the shackles of the censor, 
and of peaceable association for the consideration of 



GERMANY. 165 

grievances — that the wishes of the people might find 
a voice and free consultation devise a remedy. The 
public administration of justice and the trial by 
jury were demanded — that the people might aid in 
administering the laws, and bring the judge before 
the bar of public opinion. The claim of a Burgher's 
guard is only the German form of the American right 
of the people to bear arms — the only guarantee that 
the right of self-government will be a reality — and 
to which the oath required of the army to the consti- 
tution was an essential addition. The people insisted 
on representative assemblies, on constitutional forms, 
on liberal suffrage, on religious freedom: but they 
never asked or imposed a condition inconsistent with 
the continuance of the royal power — they never 
denied any right fit to be held by a constitutional 
King. They left him a part of the Legislature, the 
whole of the executive power, and prerogatives 
more extensive than those of the Kings of England. 
These demands were made in a tone of firm and 
manly moderation : they were yielded every where — 
almost without hesitation — under the pressure of the 
universal demand. 

But in addition to these essential powers and rights, 
every where the national aspirations after national 
union breathed not only fervent prayer, but spoke in 
tones of decided import. The people felt that no 
victory in the several states was safe so long as a 
close corporation of princes ruled the confederation, 
conspired against the liberties of the people, fulmi- 
nated decrees inconsistent with the very shadow of 
constitutional government, and enforced them by the 



166 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

intervention of the armies of Austria. So long as the 
decree of 1832 interpreting and enforcing that of 
1820 remained in force, constitutional government in 
any German State was an impossibility. Local vic- 
tories were fruitless. Local concessions were power- 
less to limit the despotism of the prince. Those laws 
declared that the sovereign power must remain intact 
and undivided in the hands of the Prince — that the 
grant of taxes could not be made conditional on a 
redress of grievances — that the publication of legisla- 
tive debates must be at the mercy of those sovereigns 
who governed so badly that the voice of free discus- 
sion was of ill example to their subjects. These 
things were dangerous to the monarchical system, 
and were to be suppressed by the federal power as 
inconsistent with the groundwork of the confedera- 
tion — a Diet of Princes absolute and irresponsi- 
ble. These laws had been stringently enforced 
to destroy the fruits of the popular victories won 
in Saxony, Hesse Cassel, and Hanover, under the 
inspiration of the French Revolution of 1830. The 
people felt the blow ; and now sought to paralyse 
the arm which dealt it. They aspired to the bless- 
ings of a united popular government in lieu of 
the confederation of Princes. They wanted a guar- 
antee of the rights of the people in place of the 
Princely conspiracy for their suppression. This 
demand was first and chief among the popular requi- 
sitions; and it was universally acquiesced in by the 
Princes. 

The hopes of Germany were centred in the Frank- 
fort Parliament and the confederated constitution it 



GERMANY. 167 

was charged to form. The success of the effort was 
to be decided at Berlin and Vienna. Victory or 
defeat followed the fate of the contest on these two 
decisive points. The rest of the field must follow 
them. The power of imperial Austria was debated 
on the plains of Hungary; and the vacillating reso- 
lution of the King of Prussia rose and fell as his 
ambitious hopes swayed to and fro in the trembling 
balance. The terrors of the Russian name and the 
weight of the Russian sword decided the fate of 
Germany. 

The bloody day of Jena had thrown a pall over the 
glories of the Kingdom of Frederick and definitively 
shattered the hold of Prussia on the past. From 
that day she was nothing — but what she made her- 
self in the war of liberation. Her power lay in her 
devotion to the cause of German progress, in opposi- 
tion to the despotic conservatism of Austria. These 
two powers impersonate the spirits which for forty 
years contended for mastery in Germany. Both 
have been absolute monarchies, but Austria has 
boasted herself a consistent despotism. Prussia has 
professed liberal principles, made popular conces- 
sions, promised constitutional guaranties and culti- 
vated her people to no small degree of political 
knowledge. Her King had gradually reluctantly 
and late added moderate political powers in the shape 
of Provincial Diets of very limited faculties. As if 
anticipating the storm, just before the outbreak of 
1848, he conferred a charter and a United Diet on 
the people of his kingdom. The charter thinly 
veiled the retention of absolute power in the last 



168 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

resort by the King. It revealed how reluctantly 
Kings part with any prerogative; for the absolute 
power of the Prussian monarchs has always been 
moderated by their dependence on their people's 
favor, and by gratitude for their eminent sacrifices in 
two great national crises — the seven years war, and 
the war of liberation. They always claimed, yet 
feared to exercise otherwise than mildly, their abso- 
lute power. They weakened and undermined its 
influence by continual promises to abandon it, yet 
fretted and worried their people by continually de- 
ferred hopes. They seemed to value their power as 
a miser does his hoards — not for the use but for the 
possession, living in terror of the inevitable day of 
parting, yet eternally talking of his posthumous bene- 
fits and the day of distribution. 

In this state the wave of revolution struck the 
vessel. The accomplished trifler who held the helm 
of Prussia, feeling himself powerless to oppose, as- 
pired to lead the storm and convert its power into 
the means of his ambitious advancement. He flung 
overboard with free hand those weighty prerogatives 
it was dangerous to retain. The raging waters were 
covered with the glittering emblems of empire de- 
voted to appease their voracity. 

Tumultuous agitations broke out in Berlin on the 
13th of March. An enormous meeting for reform 
was the occasion of a collision between the troops 
and the people. The King may have taken this 
mode of testing the temper of the people: but if he 
did the trial was satisfactory. The continued excite- 
ment and renewed collisions attested the depth and 



GERMANY. 169 

permanence of the feeling, and the King felt the 
import of the movement, assuaged the raging masses 
by ascribing the collision to accident, withdrew the 
obnoxious troops, bowed graceful acquiescence in 
the will of his faithful people, and set earnestly to 
work at once to gratify them — and advance himself. 
The imperial height sparkled in the distance, and 
with his eye fixed on it, constitutional concessions to 
his people sunk in value, and seemed cheap in 
exchange for future glories. 

A week had satisfied his mind and nerved him to 
the final step: and on the 18th of March, the royal 
revolutionist issued his first proclamation. He lifted 
the censorship from the public voice. He created and 
armed the Burgher Guard as the protector of public 
order and popular liberty. The United Diet was sum- 
moned to provide for a National Assembly, commis- 
sioned to devise a constitution. "But above all," 
the King declared, "we demand that Germany be 
transformed from a confederation of states into one 
federal state," — the precise change in our own condi- 
tion from the confederation to the constitution, the 
source and security of our peace and greatness. 
He declared a federal constitution, based on popular 
representation, united by a single imperial constitu- 
tional head, defended by a national army, graced 
by a national flag, secured by a central tribunal of 
ultimate resort, and enriched by the free flow of 
commerce and community of citizenship — to be the 
indispensable condition of their power and freedom, 
the imperative demand of the people and of the age. 
He pledged himself to strive for its attainment. 
22 



170 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

It required no second sight to see that the inspiration 
of the King was quite as much the offspring of his 
ambition, as of any deference for the will or welfare 
of the nation. On the 21st of March, the successor 
of Frederick the Great, decorated with the tri- 
-colored German flag, paraded on horseback the 
streets of his capital, and, pausing beneath the statue 
of his illustrious ancestor, inaugurated by his solemn 
words in the hearing of his people the restoration of 
the Holy Empire. While he declared the colors he 
wore not his own and that he would usurp nothing, 
he did not fail to declare his belief that the hearts of 
the Princes yearned toward him and the will of the 
nation supported him ; and the royal ordinance, ad- 
dressed to the German Nation, announced — that Fre- 
derick William IV. had taken the lead of the German 
Nation, and invoked the blessings of Providence "on 
our constitutional Prince, the leader of the German 
people, the new King of free and regenerate Ger- 
many." 

If, then, the people demanded a central govern- 
ment, it was the King who assumed the lead in the 
attempt to secure it. Yet his course was a series of 
blunders and contradictions, of liberal acts and violent 
retractions, of bold steps in advance followed by 
humiliating retreats and pitiable weaknesses. His 
nerves failed him in the decisive hour, and Germany 
remains as she was — divided, powerless and dis- 
honored. 

The National Assembly met on the 22d of May. 
It was chosen under a law proposed by the King, 
adopted by the United Diet which he had created, 



GERMANY. 171 

and formally approved by him. It existed under a 
law sanctioned by all the known powers of the state. 
It was elected by the vast majority of the people. 
If this assembly did not embody, with the King, the 
sovereignty of the state, no assembly can be any thing 
more than a consultative commission, nor have any 
more permanent tenure than the royal pleasure. 

The King greeted the assembly at its opening as 
one charged by the general election of the people to 
unite with him in making a constitution destined to 
create an era in Prussia and Germany ; and expressed 
his confidence that they would strive at once to 
secure the people a large share in the affairs of state, 
and to place the rights of his family on a sure founda- 
tion. The assembly do not appear to have been in- 
duced to depart from either of these high purposes, 
either by the seductions of popular inclination, or 
the terrors of the Berlin mob, — which occasionally 
assumed an unruly tone, but never obtained the 
mastery of the assembly. They freely discussed the 
constitutional plan submitted by the government, 
and they were inclined to alter some of its provisions; 
but they did not deviate into Jacobinical excesses, nor 
in any manner impair the just security of the crown ; 
and surely it was not supposed that this formal as- 
sembly had received the sanction of the people, that 
they might in turn accept without discussion such 
law as the monarch might dictate. The conduct of 
the King is merely another illustration of the tenacious 
grasp of royal hands on despotic power. Frederick 
was willing to concede a constitution, but he rebelled 
at its logical consequences, and sought pretexts in 



172 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

the turbulence of the revolutionary mob to usurp his 
original authority. The first serious outbreak, on 
the 16th of June, was occasioned by the conciliatory 
resolution of the Assembly, that the events of March 
were not a revolution but a transaction between the 
King and the people; but that was directed against 
the Assembly, and was promptly suppressed by the 
Burghers' Guard. From this point the re-actionary 
tendency of the King and his councillors is suffi- 
ciently manifest. The pretext was the popular 
violence, not of the Assembly, but directed against it. 
The ministry proposed and the assembly rejected an 
increase of the military force. It was apparent that 
a spirit of hostility to them was being encouraged in 
the army; and they, on the 9th of August, required 
the Minister of War to order the officers to cultivate 
a spirit of conciliation and kindness towards the 
citizens. The minister resigned rather than execute 
the order, and another performed the rejected task. 
The King confided the command of the troops to 
Von Wrangel, whose harsh and dictatorial address 
breathed the spirit of his appointment. An occasion 
was sought to remove the assembly beyond the in- 
fluence and the protection of the Berlin Guards. 
The Assembly was invaded by a promiscuous multi- 
tude late in October, when it was proposed to pledge 
the government to aid the Viennese patriots; but the 
Burgher Guard completely protected the Assembly. 
No pretext remained. Yet the King committed the 
government to Von Brandenburg, a man not merely of 
great resolution, but of known hostility to the popular 
cause: and he assumed the right to prorogue the 



GERMANY. 173 

Assembly from Berlin to Brandenburg, where it was 
required to meet on the 27th. The Assembly saw 
the design and repelled the usurpation. Excluded 
from their Hall, they sought another. Again foiled, 
they met in a Coffee House, — and resolved that no 
taxes should be paid till they were allowed to resume 
their free sittings in Berlin. They were then forci- 
bly dispersed. Not enough met at Brandenburg to 
transact business — where their voices could only echo 
the influence of the army and the ministry. They 
were again prorogued till the 7th of December, and 
before that day arrived, while the National Assembly 
was in full being, after the King had parted with his 
absolute powers by two distinct and solemn acts, he 
suddenly resumed them in their highest plenitude, 
dissolved the body in which was vested the sovereign 
legislative power of the state, and in his own name, 
by his own plenary authority, proclaimed on the 5th 
of December a full and complete constitution for the 
state ! 

So impossible is it to impress on royal minds the 
pervading nature and high authority of popular 
sovereignty — unless the lesson be enforced by the 
sinister memory of a banishment, a deposition, or a 
scaffold ; or the presence of an ever armed and reso- 
lute people oppose an insurmountable barrier to royal 
arrogance. The absence of this experience left 
Frederick free to revoke powers irrevocably granted. 
He found the Assembly not inclined to take any such 
constitution as he might propose; he therefore 
violently usurped the powers of absolute sovereignty, 
and imposed on the nation such a constitution as he 



174 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

pleased. Of course its duration was equally depen- 
dent on his pleasure, so long as his army was more 
than a match for those who were willing to fight to 
place freedom and the rights of the nation above the 
royal grace; and the assembly it authorized swiftly 
followed the fate of its luckless predecessor. They 
met on the 26th of February, 1849, in Berlin — 
whence the former had been arbitrarily driven. The 
King's speech proposed for consideration a multitude 
of topics, but the first case of independent opinion 
was the signal for their dispersion. 

The Frankfort Parliament had completed an admi- 
rable constitution, and the Imperial dignity was ten- 
dered to the King of Prussia. He shrunk from the 
responsibility and on frivolous pretexts which ill con- 
cealed his irresolute and trifling character, declined 
the dignity, in opposition to an earnest and manly 
appeal from the Assembly. The Assembly reiterated 
their urgent prayers, but the pusillanimous monarch 
who had first led the great central movement could 
not be coaxed or driven by his imploring people 
to meet the expectations he had raised. He pre- 
ferred to disgust them by his refusal, rather than to 
gratify the mass of the German nation by giving 
effect to the grand constitution which had just been 
voted by their august Parliament. 

The Assembly then voted, that the constitution of 
the Frankfort Parliament bound the people and 
states of Germany. This the King and his ministry 
construed into an impertinent usurpation in the re- 
presentatives of the legislative power of the State, 
and this with their expression of opinion on the un- 



GERMANY. 175 

constitutionality of the state of siege of Berlin under 
the King's own instrument, were the occasion of their 
arbitrary dissolution ! 

The dispersion of the legislative body was prompt- 
ly followed, while the constitution of the 5th Decem- 
ber was in force, by the King's electoral law, the 
foundation of the whole constitutional structure ! 

Such trifling with constitutions, such childish vacil- 
lation, such arbitrary appeals to the sword to break 
the stubbornness of a popular assembly, would have 
been intolerable to any nation whose spirit was not 
weighed down by the incubus of a gigantic mili- 
tary power. It far surpasses the outrages on truth 
and faith which sedate and law-abiding Englishmen 
visited on their sovereign with the axe and the scaf- 
fold; and had Frederick William worn the English 
crown, his name would probably have graced the 
prayer-book of her church in company with "King 
Charles the Martyr." But the King felt himself 
secure in his army, and he chose arbitrarily to defy 
the opinion of the assembly whose only purpose was 
to limit and control his discretion — whenever it ven- 
tured to take the constitution as a reality, and in its 
spirit and by its authority to speak in opposition to 
the good pleasure of the King. 

This surely gave poor promise of constitutional 
government in Prussia. Yet while allowance must 
be made for the revolutionary agitation of the times, 
it cannot fail to strike us that the Assembly were 
disapproved of and dissolved, for advancing the views 
with which the King himself opened the movement 
for a central power. That his opinions had changed 



176 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

we have no reason to suppose. That he longed for 
German unity and the imperial dignity we know. 
Why then this retreat in the face of the earnest pro- 
tests and exhortations of his people and his Parlia- 
ment ? 

It was the shrinking of a weak mind from a deci- 
sive step at the appointed hour. Frederick William 
had too little of the blood of Frederick the Great. 
He stood in awe of the powers the latter had defied 
and beaten off. He saw Austria across his path, and 
from far in the back ground the frown of Russia 
darkened the prospect and chilled his ambition. He 
feared to strike a decided blow for the people and 
his own glory, against his brother sovereigns ; — and in 
less than a year he was driven to a levy of the mass 
of his people, to repel their aggression against his in- 
dependence, and to guard his influence in the coun- 
try over which he might have ruled. 

The King's treachery was one of the results of the 
struggle in southern Germany and Hungary. Let us 
there seek the explanation. 

The events in Vienna followed the same course 
with those in Berlin; but the imperial court is free 
from any suspicion of honest intention. Despotic 
rule never for a moment abandoned its throne in the 
hearts of the princes, and the concessions were only 
devices to gain time for their retraction. The ulti- 
mate aim was to defeat the renovation of Germany 
by the Frankfort Parliament; for that would have in- 
volved the overthrow of the conclave of petty despots 
through which Austria ruled Germany, and the eleva- 



GERMANY. 177 

tion of her liberal rival to an imperial crown of real 
power. 

The shock of revolution struck Vienna in March, 
1848. Early in that month, the Hungarian Parlia- 
ment addressed to the monarch an exhortation to 
surround his throne with institutions in accordance 
with the spirit of the age; and the tone of that ad- 
dress was caught and echoed by the Diet of Lower 
Austria, — one of those feeble and fading relics of the 
liberties of feudal times which still survive, like the 
ruins of old castles, the period of their grandeur. 
Anxious consultations occupied the court. The 
Emperor was a shadow; the substance of power 
had long been held by Metternich, who struggled 
against a current he felt to be irresistible. His opin- 
ion supported by that of the more despotic of the 
royal family prevailed, the petitions were rejected, and 
proclamations for the suppression of the agitation and 
the dispersion of the crowds were being printed — 
when the people infuriated by their disappointment 
flew to arms, the troops refused to act against them, 
and terror seized the hearts hardened by irresponsible 
power. Metternich felt that his hour was come, laid 
down his dignities, and fled where none pursued him 
save the consciousness of evil deeds. The Imperial 
court helpless and bewildered, after throwing out an 
ambiguous decree which the people scoffed at, felt 
itself obliged to yield to their reasonable requests. 
The freedom of the press, a national guard, the con- 
vocation of the deputies from the provinces to con- 
sult over the constitution which should be granted — 
were the rich fruits of a single day of manly resolu- 
23 



178 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

tion and moderate conduct on behalf of the citizens 
of Vienna. This first step, faithfully pursued, would 
have restored Austria to her dignity among the 
nations, and laid anew the foundations of the empire. 
But the spirit of a tortuous policy presided at the 
conception and execution of the plan. The conces- 
sions disguised a step towards that centralized unity 
which had been the day-dream of successive em- 
perors for a century. The bitterness of defeat was 
assuaged by the thought of the opportunity it af- 
forded, under cover of a general constitution which 
guarantied no substantial rights and was revocable 
at pleasure, to break down the several nationalities 
which hitherto had proved an inseparable obstacle to 
the creation of an absolutely centralized despotism. 
On the 25th of April, the Emperor published his 
constitutional scheme for the consideration of the 
Diet. It had a liberal appearance; but its legislative 
body was only to meet when convoked by the 
Emperor, its consultations were confined to his 
propositions, and nothing indicated any limitation of 
the absolute powers of the monarch during its vaca- 
tion. It was a convenient cover for the exercise of 
absolute power under constitutional forms. The Diet 
met at Vienna on the 22d of July, and was opened 
by Archduke John, in a speech of mild and earnest 
exhortation to moderate counsels. The Emperor 
who, impelled by causeless terrors, had run away from 
Vienna to Innspruck in May, returned on the 8th of 
August, and was met by the cheerful and enthusiastic 
greetings of the people of the capital. The Diet 
pledged itself to guard his constitutional throne, 



GERMANY. 179 

whose presence was the symbol and guarantee of its 
union with the people, and the Emperor professed 
himself bound to labor for the reconstruction of the 
monarchy on a representative basis. The Diet en- 
tered on its mission in the midst of explosions of 
national animosities, entangled by the complex re- 
sponsibilities of daily legislation, and filled with soli- 
citude by the arbitrary outrages of the Imperial 
cabinet on the rights of Hungary. The scandalous 
negotiations with Jellachich, the invasion of Hungary 
by an imperial army, under the command of a rebel, 
at the order of a King who was professing liberal 
principles and pretending to assume the restraints of 
constitutional government, were contradictions which 
destroyed all confidence in the sincerity of the court. 
It was plain that time and opportunity alone were 
expected to accomplish the restoration of arbitrary 
power. If the time-honored constitution of Hungary 
had no sanctity in the eyes of the Emperor, he could 
not look on the creature of his own hands with more 
regard. If Hungary fell, no protection remained for 
constitutional concessions in any part of the empire, 
and the Diet was deliberating only to give time for 
the construction of an armed force for their over- 
throw. The order to the Viennese regiments to 
march on Hungary on the 6th of October confirmed 
every fear, and impressed the people with the fate 
which awaited them. The troops refused to march, 
the people flew to arms, scenes of violence filled the 
streets. The Diet required a new ministry, the 
Emperor trifled, evaded, refused half their demand, 
and on the 7th, before day, fled from his capital to 



180 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

Olmutz, leaving an intimation that he went to return 
with power to overwhelm them. The constitutional 
Emperor summoned the Ban Jellachich with his 
Croats and Windischgratz from Bohemia to bombard 
his capital into submission; and summoned the Diet, 
which sympathized with the outraged Hungarians, 
to meet at Kremsir — where they would be at the 
mercy of the Emperor's constitutional bayonets. 

Vienna fell before the military power which the 
Emperor had created by treacherous bargains with 
the leaders of the Sclavonic insurgents, who purchased 
worthless promises of privileges to themselves as the 
price of the blood of their German and Hungarian 
fellow-citizens. They did their work faithfully : on 
the 31st of October, "order reigned in Vienna:" and 
with Vienna began the series of re-actionary suc- 
cesses, which, by a fit retribution, prostrated Sclavonic 
and Hungarian pride alike in the dust. The Im- 
perial court from this triumph drew new resolution 
and spirit in the war for absolute power. Under its 
inspiration, and ere the might of liberty and Hunga- 
rian heroism had humbled the Imperial head in sup- 
plication to the Czar, the Diet of Kremsir met — and 
were dispersed. 

Their deliberations progressed with moderation 
and firmness, but they laid too deep the foundations 
of their work. The Court felt the supports of abso- 
lute power shake, when the Diet proceeded to declare 
the people the source of all power; and Count Stadion 
peremptorily interdicted the dangerous theme. 

They proceeded to discuss and adopt wise and 
conservative provisions, giving rich promise of a solid 



GERMANY. 181 

and enduring structure in the new constitution, when 
suddenly the instincts of absolute power saw how 
fatal would be a constitution emanating from an elec- 
tive body, and guarded with statesmanlike wisdom. 
The constitutional Emperor forgot his mission and 
his pledges, dissolved and dispersed the Kremsir 
Diet, and himself proclaimed on the 4th of March, 
1849, as the emanation of his grace, a constitution 
for the Empire. Sclavonians, Zechs, Bohemians, 
Italians, and Magyars were melted and confounded 
in one centralized monarchy — moulded by the Impe- 
rial omnipotence into "the one and indivisible Empire 
of Austria." Its greatest fault was its greatest merit, 
in the eyes of its author. It was merely waste paper 
without life or power, meeting the wishes, wants and 
expectations of no part of the Empire, rejected by 
all, defended by none, a thin veil for imperial absolu- 
tism, an illusory deception convenient to divide the 
liberal party, yet powerless to control the royal will. 
It was an unreal unsubstantial piece of gossamer 
floating in the air, holding fast by no historical recol- 
lections, answering to no national expectation, a web 
of a day, to be blown away in an hour. It never 
assumed, even in appearance, the symbols of power. 
The triumph of the Hungarian arms followed swiftly 
on its announcement: and the Boy-Solon found his 
constitution in danger of being without a kingdom. 
From the absolute dictator of the law to his vassals, 
he was humbled in the dust as the vassal of Nicho- 
las — imploring his protection against the people he 
had outraged. 



182 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

But prior to the disasters of March and April, the 
court were exulting in their fancied triumph; and 
secure of absolute power at home, they employed all 
the resources of diplomacy and intrigue, to defeat 
the Frankfort constitution, to frighten the King of 
Prussia from accepting the proffered dignity, to re- 
tain Germany divided that she might be weak, and 
weak that they might rule her. 

The evils of Germany flowed from her confedera- 
tion. Her patriots wished to convert it into a bless- 
ing. Her statesmen met at Frankfort under the 
commission of the people and of the princes of Ger- 
many to effectuate the momentous change. The 
conception of a federal representative government 
for the whole of Germany, operating in harmonious 
concert with local governments for the respective 
states, was a sublime idea, worthy of the greatest 
statesman to devise, and only second to our own 
glorious government because following it in time. 
It was the only refuge for freedom against the league 
of princes who conspired its ruin, and converted the 
existing confederation into a Holy Alliance to stifle 
every free manifestation in each state by the com- 
bined power of all. This end had been completely 
attained by the supplements to the original articles in 
1820 as expanded and enforced in 1832. The far- 
sighted men of business felt that detached victories 
must be fruitless; and that the power and dignity of 
the nation not. less than the freedom and happiness 
of the people were sacrificed by the existing isolation 
of the states and combination of the princes. They 
therefore devoted their energies to wrest from the 



GERMANY. 183 

governments such concessions as would suffice to 
create a wide enduring and powerful union. Their 
efforts were ridiculed as enthusiastic dreams by the 
people, and their success deprecated by the gov- 
ernment of England — the only free nation of Eu- 
rope — as famous for tenacious conservatism and prac- 
tical wisdom in their own affairs, as for an unmeas- 
ured contempt^ or incapacity for the comprehension, 
of any system not like their own. We greeted with 
just pride the deference of modern Europe to the 
western system for combining a wide area and 
diverse interests beneath the protecting arm of one 
powerful representative government. Our revolu- 
tion inspired the Frenchmen of 1789 — our consti- 
tution was the classic model for the German Parlia- 
ment of 1848. 

The Frankfort Parliament was not the offspring of 
revolutionary violence — but the instrument of a 
peaceful and legal reform. It was not dictated by a 
mob behind a barricade, in the streets of a single town. 
It was the calm and deliberate device of statesmen 
and princes to avoid revolution by removing its causes, 
in obedience to the settled and universal will of the 
nation. 

The pervading idea of German Unity, the symbol 
and instrument of national strength freedom and 
honor, first assumed a practical form at a meeting of 
fifty-one gentlemen of note, chiefly members of the 
Legislative Chambers of Prussia, Bavaria and other 
states. On the 5th of March, 1848, they met at 
Heidelberg, declared a Representative Assembly 
chosen by all the German states in proportion to 



184 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

their numbers ; to be a measure of imperious neces- 
sity, and charged a committee with the preparation 
of a scheme. They convoked a preliminary Parlia- 
ment to meet at Frankfort on the 30th, to provide 
for the election of members to the National German 
Parliament, to which the hopes of all looked forward. 

So public and approved was this design, that the 
Diet of the confederation, created by the treaties of 
Vienna, wielding the powers of the existing confed- 
eration, composed only of the plenipotentiaries of 
the German sovereigns, and hitherto the fatal tool of 
the Holy Alliance for the department of Germany, in 
session at Frankfort on the 8th of March, formally 
invited to participate in their deliberations and join 
the ranks of the Diet, seventeen of the leaders in this 
popular movement, and among them were Von 
Gagern, Welcker, and others of the Heidelberg com- 
mittee. 

The preliminary Parliament met on the 30th of 
March, at Frankfort, fixed the ratio of representation 
for the National Assembly at seventy thousand 
souls, settled the mode of election by the people, 
and appointed May the 18th as the day for their 
meeting. On that day the representatives met at 
Frankfort. They were the direct representatives of 
the votes of the people of Germany, elected by law 
in every state. The Diet of the confederation — 
which bore the same relation to them that the Con- 
gress of the confederation did to the Grand Con- 
vention in many respects — hastened on the first days 
of their assembling to present them a message, ex- 
pressing the desire of the Diet to act in friendly 



GERMANY. 185 

unison and co-operation with them. The legal char- 
acter and high functions of the Frankfort Parliament 
were thus formally and promptly acknowledged by 
the Diet which they were to supersede. It was the 
solemn inauguration of the Assembly as the repre- 
sentative of the national sovereignty of Germany: 
and they at once entered on its actual and plenary 
exercise. 

They did not confine themselves to devising a 
system of constitutional law, which was to be opera- 
tive only when approved, whether by princes or 
people or both. They assumed the functions of 
actual government in the name of the nation; and 
their first debate continued till the end of June the 
consideration of the powers of a central executive. 
The result was the law of June 28th, constituting a 
Provisional Central Power for the administration of 
affairs touching the whole of Germany. It was 
vested with the executive power in the affairs of the 
nation, with the command of the armed force, and with 
the right to send and receive ambassadors, to make 
war and peace, and with the assent of the Assembly 
to conclude treaties. These high prerogatives were to 
be conferred on a Regent elected by the Assembly, 
himself irresponsible, but surrounded by responsible 
ministers, without whom he could not act. His power 
was limited to the period of the completion of the 
constitution, and he was directed to exert it, as far as 
compatible with his duty, in good understanding with 
the plenipotentiaries of the German States. The 
German Diet was declared to cease from the moment 
that the Central Power began to exercise its func- 
24 



186 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

tions. As the Diet represented the whole executive 
authority of the confederation, this latter provision 
was essential to prevent a double and conflicting 
executive — if the Frankfort Parliament and their 
Central Power were to be any thing but shadows and 
names. The recognition of this law by the German 
Powers involved the recognition of the legal and 
sovereign nature of the Assembly. They elected the 
Archduke John of Austria, Regent under the law. 
The Diet of the confederation placed in the hands 
of the committee of the Assembly appointed to 
announce the election of the Archduke, a letter 
expressing the satisfaction of the Diet at the result, 
and assuring him that, pending the debate on the law, 
the plenipotentiaries composing their body had been 
instructed to declare in favor of his election. The 
Archduke, a subject and in the service of Austria, 
after consultation with the Emperor, his brother, 
accepted the dignity. On the 12th of July he was 
solemnly inaugurated as Regent of the German 
Empire, and in the presence of the National Assem- 
bly declared that he would obey and enforce the law 
under which he was appointed. He forthwith sur- 
rounded himself with a ministry, filling all the de- 
partments of a complete and elaborate government 
charged with the internal and external affairs of a 
great Empire, and entered on the active discharge of 
the duties of his station. His appointment and his 
powers were formally announced by the Prussian 
ministry to the Prussian Assembly; and both the 
person and the authority were approved, with some 
little hesitation at the transferring from the Diet to the 



GERMANY. 187 

Regent of the powers of war and peace. Even that 
hesitation was forgotten in the alacrity with which 
Prussia acted in his name in the Schleswig-Holstein 
invasion. The Malmo armistice was not ratified at 
first by the Frankfort Parliament: and on its vote 
refusing the means of executing it, according to the 
custom of constitutional monarchies, the ministry 
which had approved it resigned. A change of circum- 
stances induced a change of opinion : the Assembly 
finally resolved to adopt it, and the Regent was 
instructed to negotiate with Denmark on the subject. 
In this view of the functions and position of the 
Regent and the Frankfort Parliament all Germany 
seemed to concur. They were every where re- 
cognised as the governing power of the confederation, 
and not merely treated as a convention devising a 
scheme of constitutional law, but having no legal and 
sovereign power either to make or to enforce laws 
binding the people and the states. 

But the recognition of their character however it 
must involve, did not secure the recognition of the 
consequences. The Austrian acquiescence was rather 
the time-serving consent of a helpless power, than 
the honest acceptance of the great change involved 
in the successful evolution of the scheme of the 
Frankfort Parliament. Her arts and intrigues were 
roused to deadly activity, to strangle in its infancy a 
power whose full grown might it would be danger- 
ous to cope with. She entered the field without a 
declaration of war, herself powerless if unaided, but 
armed with the votes of Austrian delegates in the 
Assembly, with the sympathies of dependent king- 



188 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

doms whose proximity subjected them to her sinister 
designs, and with the strength of promised Russian 
aid which sufficed to awe into submission the light 
and frivolous, the ambitious but irresolute King of 
Prussia. He aspired to the imperial dignity — but 
trembled before the difficulties which intrigues and 
jealousy reared in his path, and concealed beneath a 
simulated tenderness for the rights of his brother 
sovereigns the cowardice which palsied his arm in 
the execution of his darling plan, and the treachery 
to his people whose cherished hopes he sacrificed 
after proclaiming himself their champion. 

On two points hung the results of the Frankfort 
Parliament — -the structure of an efficient popular con- 
stitution — and the selection of a head to defend and 
enforce it. It was certain from the beginning that 
Austria would accept no constitution which was hon- 
estly based on the popular will : and that the eleva- 
tion of Prussia to the Imperial supremacy would be 
met by armed resistance. The success of the attempt 
to found a German Empire on a popular basis de- 
pended upon the power of Austria to prevent it; and 
that depended upon the readiness of Prussia to try the 
question in arms rather than yield her hopes or falsify 
and dishonor her pledges to the world. The accep- 
tance of the constitution depended on the acceptance 
of the Imperial dignity: for if it were rejected by 
Prussia, she would also reject a constitution which ne- 
cessitated her own subjection to some other Emperor ; 
and she was the only power which could for a mo- 
ment sustain the cause of the nation against the inter- 
est of Austria and Russia to enfeeble and divide it. 



GERMANY. 189 

If the constitution once concentrated the power of 
Germany, or of any considerable part of it, in the 
hands of a popularly elected Parliament and a liberal 
Emperor, from that day Russian influence would be 
dead, Austrian domination would cease, both powers 
would be assailed along their whole frontiers by the 
inevitable propaganda of liberal ideas and mild consti- 
tutional rule exemplified in the affairs of the confed- 
eration and of the states. They both, therefore, had 
a deep stake in its defeat: and the treachery and 
cowardice of Frederick William yielded, without a 
blow, all that the most successful campaign could 
have wrung from disaster. 

The Frankfort Parliament, on the 28th of March, 
1849, elected Frederick William of Prussia to the 
dignity of Emperor of Germany. A committee of 
thirty-two members announced to him his election 
on the 3rd of April, 1849. His answer betokened a 
melancholy change in the royal mind since the 18th 
of March, 1848. The royal hypocrite had turned 
his gaze to the King of Kings — whom they strangely 
conceive as made after their image, and in whose 
name their treacheries and perjuries are perpetrated. 
He recognized, he said, the voice of the German peo- 
ple, and acknowledged that their vocation gave him 
a title he knew how to prize ; he confessed his wil- 
lingness to assume the burthens and the thorns of the 
proffered crown, but — with many circumlocutions, 
with much hesitation, under thin pretexts — he de- 
clined to assume the Imperial dignity without the 
voluntary assent of the crowned Princes of Germany. 
This was equivalent to a refusal : for it was refusing to 
control those whom the constitution was intended to 



190 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

control — 'Without their several and individual assent. 
If only on that condition the labors of the Frankfort 
Parliament were to be successful, sensible men would 
have staid at home — or taken the field before their 
royal enemies had time to organize armed resistance. 
The course of events throws light on this result, so 
overwhelming to the popular cause. Something had 
obliterated from the memory the procession, the 
oath, the proclamation, the devotion of the 21st of 
March, 1848. Then the King of Prussia had ad- 
dressed the German Nation — not his fellow-princes, 
who would then have been glad of his countenance 
and aid — announcing that he had taken the lead, re- 
lying on their political regeneration for his support as 
the leader of the German people, the new King of the 
free regenerated German Nation. He declared that 
thenceforth the name of Prussia was fused and dis- 
solved into that of Germany. He promised a plan 
for the conversion of the confederation of states 
into a federal government, urged its prompt execu- 
tion, and proposed to surround it at once with an 
army at its disposal. -In April, his ministry had 
explained these acts so as to remove the impression 
that the King meant to anticipate the unbiassed deci- 
sion of the sovereign Princes and the people of Ger- 
many, in the assumption of the Imperial crown before 
he was called to it. But this did not import that, 
when called by the authorized representatives of 
Princes and People, he would not accept, unless every 
Prince gave his individual assent. Such an interpre- 
tation was then in no one's mind. It was as little 
contemplated as the assent of each individual of the 



GERMANY. 191 

people. Either Prussia or Austria must represent the 
Imperial dignity ; and neither could for a moment be 
expected to assent to the elevation of her rival — if 
her veto could defeat the election of the people. It 
must therefore have been contemplated, that the 
Frankfort Parliament, speaking as the representatives 
of Princes and People, should invest by their vote 
the object of their choice with the right to bear the 
sceptre of united Germany, and with the power to 
coerce the refractory by the common arms. The 
creation of the Provisional Central Power, a regent 
for the conduct of an actual government, vested with 
the powers of peace and war, surrounded by a 
ministry responsible to the Frankfort Parliament and 
not to the Diet of the confederation, and endowed with 
the capacity of voluntary independent action in the 
affairs of the nation without consulting the Princes 
or their plenipotentiaries except so far as he might 
consider it proper so to do, was absolutely inconsis- 
tent with the supposition of a paramount title in the 
Princes to control the deliberations or to counteract 
the policy or to defeat the enactments of the Parlia- 
ment — the full representative of the national will. 
To await their individual assent was either a hypo- 
critical device to defeat the constitution inspired by 
subsequent events, or — it covered the King of Prussia 
with the stain of premeditated treachery, and proved 
him to have betrayed his country with the kiss of 
Judas. His ambition stands surety for his early sin- 
cerity : his fears, his vacillation, his cowardice were 
the causes of his faithless abandonment of the national 
cause. 



192 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

Since the ebullition of the royal enthusiasm for an 
Imperial crown in the disguise of popular and na- 
tional aspirations, Austria and Russia had intimated 
their opinions on the contemplated innovations. For 
some centuries Germany had been an agglomeration 
of discordant and powerless states. It was seriously 
to impede the westward march of Russia, that its 
scattered members should be knit into one articulate 
and nervous frame, animated by one spirit, and 
moving with concentrated might. At the outbreak 
of the revolution, the Czar professed neutrality : but 
as the agitations shook the thrones of Germany, he 
illustrated the Russian idea of neutrality, by augment- 
ing his armies and crowding them to the frontiers. 
They stood ready at a moment's notice to cross the 
imaginary line which divides Prussian and Austrian 
from Russian Poland. 

In July, 1848, thus prepared, the Czar communi- 
cated to his agents at the German Courts his views 
on the National Union. It was to be a popular gov- 
ernment, it was the result of revolutionary agitations, 
it was to replace weakness by strength, division by 
union, the conspiracy of princes by the powers of 
the people. No one need doubt what Nicholas 
would think of this. In the eyes of the head of the 
Holy Alliance, it would be a gross violation of the 
laws of good neighborhood. The mode of express- 
ing his sentiments is peculiarly Russian. He boasted 
his disinterested aid in the Liberation war and his 
recent proffer of his deadly alliance. He complained 
of the imputation of intrigues, which he hardly denied : 
and then in a sentence of dark import he declared, 



GERMANY. 193 

" We have never ceased to recommend and maintain 
in Germany concord and unity — not indeed that ma- 
terial unity which is now the day-dream of a demo- 
cratic spirit of levelling and aggrandizement, and 
which if it were possible to realize it as conceived 
by ambitious theorists, would infallibly sooner or 
later plunge Germany into war with all her neigh- 
bors — but that moral unity, that sincere harmony of 
views and intentions in all political questions which 
the German Confederation formerly treated of. It 
is the maintenance of this union, it is the consolida- 
tion of the bonds which unite the German governments 
together, which has ever been our sole aim, because 
we desire the peace of Europe : and in our opinion 
the surest guarantee of this peace has ever been 
lodged in the intimate union of all the Governments 
which constitute the German Confederation." 

Of the meaning of Russian neutrality there could 
be no doubt after this communication. It was 
equally insolent, menacing and humiliating. Nicho- 
las formally declares that his arm has been laid on 
the German people to maintain concord and unity 
between the governments of Germany; and history 
explains the purposes and results of that concord to 
have been the suppression of freedom. He declares 
his sole aim to have been the maintenance of this 
union — as his predecessor Catherine had maintained 
anarchy in Poland by guaranteeing the u liberum 
veto." In language not to be mistaken, he denounces 
war against any union among the people of Ger- 
many which should create a power self-sustaining, 

and a union which he would not be required to 
25 



194 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

sustain — as his predecessor suppressed by force of 
arms that wise liberal and peaceful constitution of 
Poland whose introduction elicited the well consid- 
ered eulogy of Edmund Burke. What he oppro- 
briously terms "that material unity" "the day-dream 
of a democratic spirit of levelling and aggrandize- 
ment" was the wise and liberal renovation of Ger- 
man nationality with which the Frankfort Parlia- 
ment was charged — the creation of a popular and 
powerful federal government demanded by the voice 
of the people whose rights it was to protect, and 
whose arms would defend it — and sanctioned by the 
very princes whose union Nicholas was so anxious 
to maintain. The threat of hostilities was plainly 
spoken in the prophetic assurance, that the realization 
of that unity, the creation of that central and tute- 
lary power after which all Germany yearned, "would 
infallibly plunge Germany into war with all her neigh- 
bors:" for Russia was one of those neighbors — the 
only one interested to defeat the efforts of the 
Frankfort Parliament. Russia had already de- 
nounced those internal changes which threatened to 
elevate Germany from insignificance to the dignity of 
a Power among the nations — as an aggression on her 
rights which required her to arm; and her hordes 
crowded to the frontiers in token that her words 
were no idle threat. Such was the position of the 
ally of Austria formally announced in July, 1848, 
when the debates on the central power, the law de- 
fining his authority, and the draft of the proposed 
constitution were fully known and had clearly defined 
the purposes of the vast majority of the Frankfort 



GERMANY. 195 

Parliament. To these things — not to the wild theo- 
ries of irresponsible enthusiasts — the words of Nich- 
olas apply. The Parliament thenceforth deliberated 
under a Russian threat. 

Austria sympathized with her ally. Her German 
provinces were represented in the Parliament, her 
Archduke presided over the nascent Empire — yet 
it was known that she was hostile to the change. 
She would consent to no federal union in which her 
supremacy was not secured. That was an impossi- 
ble condition, on any probable contingency. The 
very purpose of the union was — the change of the 
confederacy into a federal state — subordinating each 
separate state to the wiH of the whole. If the 
Frankfort Parliament changed the relations of the 
states, and created a central sovereignty, embodied 
in a representative assembly and hereditary Imperial 
crown guarded by constitutional restraints, that would 
be incompatible with absolute power in the Austrian 
provinces. It was still more hostile to the policy of 
Austrian unity, whether popular or despotic. It 
involved the subjection of her German provinces to a 
foreign power. If the whole of the Austrian Empire 
were embraced in the confederation, it would have 
been folly to talk of placing the Imperial diadem out 
of the house of Hapsburg. But this was absolutely 
incompatible with the conditions of a popular repre- 
sentation. Such a constitution must have been a 
dead letter. Austria might have consented to it — 
safe in the assurance that it never could be enforced. 
But all Germany would have repelled such an union. 
It subjected the German to a host of alien tongues 



196 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

and races, it merged forever that nationality they 
were striving to embody into a political fabric. The 
only scheme at all reconcilable with that central des- 
potism which was the sole unity of the Austrian con- 
glomerate was the existing confederation. The Diet 
of Princes could find a place for Austria. Her influ- 
ence could control them on matters of general inter- 
est. Her weight could deaden every stirring of 
political life in the individual states, with the aid of 
the local sovereign. The subjection of her German 
provinces to the Diet was only a circuitous way of 
governing them herself. She was free to pursue 
her course of consolidation untrammeled by laws for 
her provinces above her own control. 

When the Frankfort Parliament met, the Emperor 
of Austria was an exile from his capital, and threat- 
ened with a struggle for his crown. His empire 
seemed dropping to pieces. He could not openly 
oppose the universal wish of Germany — procrastina- 
tion was impossible — intrigue and treachery alone 
remained. 

His provinces appeared by their representatives. 
Their vocation was to strangle the infant Hercules 
whose cradle they pretended to guard. 

Every delay was a gain. It gave time to recon- 
struct his shattered power. He could not secure the 
Imperial crown — he therefore opposed its creation. 
He proposed a central directory of the crowned 
heads of Germany, whose power would be divided 
between Austria and Prussia — and whose divisions 
would paralize the power the assembly was convoked 
to found. The proposal was defeated. 



GERMANY. 197 

The triumph of Prussia was imminent, unless the 
constitution could be made so obnoxious as to insure 
the rejection of the crown it created and conferred. 
The Austrian members voted with the radicals for 
universal suffrage that they might disgust the moder- 
ate masses of the nation. They supported the quali- 
fied, in place of the absolute veto, that they might 
humble the pride and chili the enthusiasm of a King 
used to absolute power, by the offensive prominence 
of the limits which confined him. Months wore 
away in this war of parliamentary tactics. The diffi- 
culties were great even were honest intentions striv- 
ing for the solution. But anarchists of the two 
extremes were blending their forces to ward off a 
result equally fatal to both. The radical and the 
despot were equally overthrown by the establishment 
of a wise and liberal constitution. Between this 
double fire fought the patriotic representatives of the 
mass of the German nation — driven by this dishonest 
combination to concessions alternately to each of the 
allies, yet so strong in the power of reason and the 
favor of the nation, that finally they baffled their 
united foes. The real difficulty was the German 
provinces of the Austrian Empire which formed at 
once an integral part of the existing Confederation 
and of the Austrian Empire. The assembly could 
not include them without dividing that empire. — 
They could not exclude them without cutting off 
part of the existing Confederation. Austria voted 
in the assembly, was impracticable, and immovable. 
She would neither come in nor go out — but adhered 
pertinaciously to the existing arrangement, and tried 



198 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

every art to defeat any other. Equal difficulties 
seemed to beset either course — when Austria herself 
gave a solution. 

The debate had opened on the 11th of January, 
1849. On the 4th of March, the Emperor of Aus- 
tria, after dispersing the Diet of Kremsir, proclaimed 
a constitution for his empire, melting into one its 
numerous provinces, vesting the absolute legislative 
power in the Emperor and the Diet acting on his 
proposition — and thus utterly cutting himself off from 
the German Confederation. He did for his empire 
with a single stroke of the pen, what he was stu- 
diously engaged in defeating for the German nation 
at Frankfort. This act solved the difficulty. There 
was no more question of the treaties of 1815 — those 
foul shackles on the arms of Europe — for, besides a 
thousand former violations, Austria had formally 
abrogated all that related to her German provinces. 
There was no more question of the fitness of ex- 
cluding Austria — she had pronounced the separation 
of herself from Germany. The Parliament had only 
to give her credit for sincerity, to take her at her 
word, adopt a constitution covering the rest of 
Germany, and leave the relations with Austria for 
future negotiation. The propitious moment seemed 
to have arrived : and Welcker hastened to improve it. 
On the 12th of March he moved a series of proposi- 
tions based on the result of the constitution of Count 
Stadion. The contest was protracted in an animated 
debate worthy to decide the fate of an empire, till 
the 21st of March. All Germany hung with breath- 
less suspense on the words which were to decide the 



GERMAN*, 199 

fate of their fatherland. Multitudes who desponded 
of success, or were disgusted with the factious 
squabble that had more than once disfigured the 
symmetry of the plan, now looked up with renewed 
hope. The prompt adoption of the propositions 
would have changed the whole course of events and 
probably ensured the acceptance of the constitution. 
They were voted down by a factious conspiracy 
between the conservative and the revolutionist aided 
by the Austrians who, pending the debate, poured 
into the Assembly where they had not previously sat. 
Their number was increased from eighty to one hun- 
dred and ten ; the motion was lost by a vote of two 
hundred and fifty-two to two hundred and eighty 
two — by the precise number of Austrians added to 
the Assembly. The result was produced by votes 
which ought not to have been admitted ; for Austria 
by her constitution had severed herself from Ger- 
many ; and from that day it was an outrage to mingle 
in her affairs and control her destiny. The defeat of 
this proposition probably decided the fate of the con- 
stitution. After further delays the constitution was 
finally adopted on the 28th of March : and Frederick 
William of Prussia was elected Emperor of Germany 
in spite of the pertinacious opposition of Austria. Yet 
he refused to take the crown proffered by the 
nation. The despotic powers were again suc- 
cessful. 

The result of the consultation of the German 
Princes by the king might well be surmised before- 
hand. It can be regarded as nothing but a form to 
disguise a previous resolution. The refusal of the 



200 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

crown was resolved on before the consent was either 
asked or refused. 

The Sovereigns of Austria, Bavaria, and Saxony 
declined to accept the constitution and to sanction 
the election of Frederick William. But no one ever 
dreamed of the concurrence of Austria; and the 
King of Bavaria was his satellite. But the whole of 
Germany north of the Mayn and of the Erz moun- 
tains would have supported Prussia, if her King had 
not been false and cowardly. Twenty of the states, 
with their Princes, formally accepted the constitution 
and the Imperial headship of the King of Prussia. 
Among them were the important states of Baden, 
Hesse-Darmstadt, Oldenburg, Mecklenburg, Bruns- 
wick, and the four powerful and wealthy Hanse 
towns, Frankfort, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen. 
Their population with that of Prussia exceeded 
twenty millions. They alone sufficed to sustain the 
constitution till its silent pleading would have coerced 
the accession of the rest. Hanover and Saxony alone 
of all northern Germany interposed objections; and 
they spoke the mind of the King and not of the peo- 
ple who would soon have compelled the acceptance 
of the constitution. The people of Prussia through 
the Assembly at Berlin spoke their mind in no mea- 
sured terms. They were willing to encounter the 
sacrifices and the burthens which their hypocritical 
King was too tender to ask them to assume. The 
upper chamber, on the news of the election of the 
King, anticipated the arrival of the committee by re- 
solutions urging him not to refuse the fulfilment of 
the hopes of the nation. The Assembly heard with 



GERMANY. 201 

the greatest indignation the halting reply to the com- 
mittee, resolved unanimously to enter on the imme- 
diate consideration of the subject, and adopted an 
address professing the utmost readiness to encounter 
the burthens and dangers involved in the acceptance 
of the crown and constitution which the distracted 
state of the country and the threatening condition of 
Europe so imperatively required; and concluded with 
praying him not to refuse the summons, but to fulfil 
the hopes and expectations of the German people. 
But his majesty had turned his gaze from the people 
to the princes. He placed his complacency to the 
latter on the false ground of reluctance to entail on 
the former the burthens and dangers incident to a 
compliance with their wishes. 

It still remained to accept or reject the consti- 
tution. The ministry advised the rejection. The 
King was impelled by his ambition to keep the door 
open for his future elevation, and decided not to re- 
cognize it. The Assembly of Prussia, by the consti- 
tution of the King an integral part of the legislative 
power of the country, supposed themselves entitled 
to a voice in the acknowledgment or rejection of a 
constitution which was to be the supreme law of the 
land. They could not consent that the King should 
alone decide on a question of such magnitude, nor 
that he should arrogate the exclusive right of either 
subjecting the nation to another jurisdiction or ex- 
cluding it from a union essential to its interests. 
They had no ambitious hopes to gratify : and with 
the good of the people whose voice they uttered 
before their eyes, they clung with patriotic devotion 
26 



202 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

to the constitution which concentrated the hostilities 
of all crowned despots, — and formally recognized it 
as valid and binding. This was no more than ex- 
pressing in words what the princes and people of 
United Germany had impliedly sanctioned by the 
creation of the Central Power and vesting it with 
the attributes of actual sovereignty. Yet the consti- 
tutional King treated as an insolent usurpation this 
claim of the Legislature to a voice and an opinion on 
this great paramount law of the land. He dissolved 
them instantly and contemptuously, without deigning 
to assign a reason or intimate beforehand his inten- 
tion. 

From the leader of the German people, Frederick 
William, in less than a year was become the defender 
of the German princes. In March, 1848, he was 
ready to devote his kingdom and his sword to the 
Union of the people: in April, 1849, he offered his 
sword to the princes to silence the indignation of 
the people at their base betrayal. That year involved 
a whole cycle in human affairs. 

The absolute princes, in March, 1848, found them- 
selves in a moment prostrated by a storm whose 
sound they heard, but whence it came or whither it 
went they could not tell. Their armies were not to 
be relied on. Their people were clamorous for con- 
stitutional rights. All society was tossed in tumul- 
tuous agitation. Its waves shook the solidest fast- 
nesses of despotism. The noise of their people's 
rising was as the voice of many waters. — A year of 
agitation had cooled the ardor of some, disappointed 
the hopes of many. The delays, the intrigues, the 



GERMANY. 203 

conspiracies, the combinations of the despots had 
disheartened the friends of constitutional Union. 
The masses of the nation began to despond. They 
were without a leader in whom to confide, devoted 
to their cause, nothing without it, his all dependent 
on their success. They had speakers, politicians, 
philosophers — but no one man of action to unite the 
people into an organized body whose will should be 
law. J\ T o Hampden arose to dare the worst in the 
logic of freedom, and to sound the hour when con- 
cession was madness and arms the only hope. No 
Cromwell arose to lead to victory men who stood 
ready to shatter by the last argument the brittle and 
fragile contrivances of royal conspirators. No Wash- 
ington was there to inspire with his venerated name 
confidence in adversity and unity in the midst of dis- 
tractions. No Frederick the Great was there with 
the genius of a lofty ambition whose dictates stood 
in the place and performed the offices of the highest 
virtues — with an iron grasp to seize the proffered 
crown so that all Europe could not wrest it from his 
hand — with an earnest devotion to the greatness of 
his people which is willing to accept the conditions 
on which alone that greatness is possible, — and with 
clearness to comprehend and self-relying courage to 
adhere to the dictates of practical wisdom. From 
his day to the present, the German nation has not 
produced his like nor his second. The storms of 
the French revolution failed to awake a spirit of 
more than the most mediocre stature. The bureau- 
cracy of the thirty years of peace has deadened 
every energy and suppressed as dangerous every 



204 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

independent manifestation. No field of action has 
been opened to train her youth to high thoughts — 
the essential prerequisite of high deeds. Her 
princes are pusillanimous, narrow-minded, incompe- 
tent for any thing higher than the routine of oppres- 
sion. And on the throne of the Great Frederick, 
the acknowledged and only leader of the spirit of 
the times, sat a trembling irresolute trifler — accom- 
plished in all the accomplishments of a literary nation, 
with sympathies for freedom and progress, but covet- 
ous of arbitrary power and hostile to the consequences 
of the liberty he admired, susceptible of lofty con- 
ceptions, but too light and frivolous to give them 
form and shape in practical life, and without that one 
essential quality of him who would do great things 
for himself or for mankind, the knowledge of the 
appointed hour, and the resolution to commit himself 
to the rise of the tide which bears onward to the 
wished-for haven — whose swell once passed will 
never return. He lacked the energy to do and dare. 
His idle vanity feared to risk his peaceful repose for 
greatness and his country's good. — The constitution 
was in some respects distasteful to one who held ab- 
solute power. Universal suffrage was represented 
as the revolution legalized. The suspensive veto 
was described as a pliant door for the invasion of 
democratic ambition and the overthrow of kingly 
rights. The acceptance of the constitution and of the 
crown when the princes over whom they were to rule 
refused their assent — once already given to the Parlia- 
ment, — was described as taking the part of the revolu- 
tion against his fellow princes — as reversing the tra- 



GERMANY. 205 

ditions of thirty years — as treachery to the cause of 
royal conspiracy. These reasons were now armed 
with all the authority of obedient armies ; and these 
relaxed the strenuous devotion which the King had 
expressed for constitutional rights — when their re- 
fusal might have left him without any. Von Wrangel 
was master of forces adequate to control any but 
universal and organized resistance. Austria held a 
position and a power not to be contemned : and her 
voice was decisive. The arms of Windischgratz and 
Jellachich had subdued Prague and Vienna. No 
leader appeared to concentrate the scattered might 
that slumbered in the peasant's arm. Discordant 
nationalities were cheated or defeated in detail : and 
the Imperial government, wielding the powers of the 
law, selected and combined an army which stood 
ready to do its bidding — while the clamors of the 
people for constitutional rights were silenced by the 
deceptive charter which Stadion in the name of the 
Emperor flung down before them as the apple of dis- 
cord. The Hungarian war was raging — but it had 
not yet assumed the character of a war of indepen- 
dence. The advantages seemed on the side of the 
Emperor. His generals had won great victories. 
His troops though checked still stood with their face 
to the enemy. The question was one of internal 
administration which a little concession could com- 
promise at any moment. Obstinate persistance 
threatened absolute overthrow — for the decisive bat- 
tles which demonstrated the unity resolution and 
heroism of the Hungarians had not taken place. 
The declaration of independence was yet to come. 



206' THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

They might even accept the Stadion constitution. 
The sword of Russia was already drawn in this 
domestic quarrel — -and seemed to render resistance 
futile. A shudder ran over Europe when the Rus- 
sian eagle was seen in the mountains of Transylvania 
and announced what all had foreboded, the alliance 
of the two despotic powers for the suppression of 
revolutionary freedom. The armies of the Czar 
hung like a black cloud over the horizon of Germany, 
and the flash of the lightning from the distant quarter 
of Transylvania betokened the storm which might 
pour over Germany at the will of him who controlled 
it. Europe looked on in silence. No voice protested, 
no arm was raised to shield the oppressed from the 
blow. The princes of Germany could not quarrel 
with a volunteer ally. England and France were 
wrapped in secure and selfish indifference. This 
was a combination which might have caused a firmer 
heart, a more devoted spirit than that of Frederick 
William to quail. Success involved a contest which 
must let loose all the elements of European discord. 
The prophetic eye of genius and patriotism could 
see through the darkness of the present the bright- 
ness of the future; but the sybarite and the epicu- 
rean, the dainty Royalty bred in luxurious ease, 
whose ambition was an idle fancy cultivated to vary 
the monotony of unopposed power, whose only idea 
of heroism was in the past and in the future and 
never the dictate of the imperative now — he was not 
the man for the crisis — and Germany had none other. 
Her womb was barren of greatness. Her reproach 
was not taken away among nations. She remained 



GERMANY. 207 

as she was, divided, distracted, despised, the prey of 
petty despots, led as a silent captive to decorate a 
tyrant's triumph. 

The fate of the constitution was sealed by the 
combination of the despotic powers. Yet the Par- 
liament clung to its high mission, and the Regent still 
represented the imperishable existence of the unity 
which princes and people had created. The Parlia- 
ment on the 4th of May, repeated by formal votes 
their assertion of the obligatory character and legal 
validity of the constitution, called on the several 
states to conform to its provisions, and convoked the 
first Constitutional and Federal Parliament to meet 
at Frankfort on the 15th of August. They provided 
for the refusal of the Imperial crown by Prussia by 
elevating the sovereign of the most populous state 
which should conform to its provisions, to the dignity 
of Regent of the Empire. But the man for the 
time was wanting. The solemn and heroic resolu- 
tion not to despair of a great cause however admira- 
ble is worthless, unless supported by armed power 
against armed aggression : and nothing could secure 
the operation of such a constitution within the limits 
of states whose sovereigns were hostile to its exist- 
ence — but a central army, strong enough to rally 
round it the masses of the country — and led by a 
man competent to deal with such a crisis. Neither 
army nor man existed. The King of Prussia could 
safely usurp the power of recalling the delegates his 
people had elected : and volunteer military aid to 
crush the outbreaks of the people which the faith- 
lessness of their princes had provoked. 



208 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

The people of Saxony and of Baden were too 
much in earnest to submit quietly to an outrage 
which justified force if force could be successful. 
The Saxon Assembly called on the King to acknow- 
ledge and submit to the Frankfort Constitution. 
The dissolution of the body was the remedy copied 
from the example of Austria and Prussia. The 
people of the capital rose and expelled their King: 
the people were masters of their own fate. Prussia 
rushed to the rescue, and by armed intervention pros- 
trated the nation at the feet of its petty despot. — 
In Baden the disgust and discontent of the people 
encouraged the radical party to deeds of violence 
which again provoked or excused the intervention of 
Prussia : and after a sharp struggle, the people were 
there also crushed into quiet. But these disturb- 
ances were the direct result of the perfidious conduct 
of the princes of Germany, who excited by their 
promises and their acts expectations which they 
seized the first pretext to disappoint. Till they saw 
their hopes fall with the constitution, the conserva- 
tive and reforming mass of the nation controlled, in 
the very tempest and fury of the revolutionary feel- 
ing, all serious breaches of public order, by radical 
violence. The progress of affairs was like the 
reform agitation of England rather than the madness 
of Parisian revolution: and the sovereigns of Ger- 
many must accuse their own bad faith for the blood 
of the struggle in Saxony and Baden. To them will 
history ascribe the untold horrors which must attend 
the revolution they have at once postponed and neces- 
sitated. They have laid up wrath against the day of 
wrath. 



GERMANY. 209 

The Frankfort constitution fell before the com- 
bined cowardice and treachery of its chosen head, 
and the intrigues and menaces of its open enemies. 
It was denounced beforehand by Russia as "the day- 
dream of a democratic and levelling spirit of aggran- 
dizement;" it was spurned by Austria as contami- 
nated by its popular origin. The offspring of the 
will of the people, it was the centre of their affections 
and attracted to itself their united support. It had 
a source other than princely grace. Its title to 
rule was paramount the delegated authority of 
princes. The fear and the hatred of this firm and 
lofty title had driven the King of Prussia and the 
Emperor of Austria to dissolve and disperse the 
legislative assemblies which their people had chosen 
and they had convoked to make constitutions for their 
empires — that they might substitute charters ema- 
nating from the royal grace, which the people would 
not care to defend against the royal pleasure. 

The King of Prussia played the same game in the 
affairs of United Germany. The four powers who 
had strangled the Frankfort constitution united to 
contrive a substitute, not infected by the contagion of 
the revolutionary plague, yet providing for the essen- 
tial interests of the nation. It fills us with contempt 
for their incapacity, when we contemplate their 
work. Fresh from the destruction of one constitu- 
tion, Prussia Saxony and Hanover promulgated, on 
the 30th of May, another, embodying every feature 
which had ensured the failure of the former — with 
the single exception of its origin. The essential 
demerits which proved fatal to the former were the 
27 



210 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

elevation of Prussia to the supremacy formerly occu- 
pied by Austria — the substitution of a government 
for a confederation — the exclusion of the Austrian 
provinces or the division of the Austrian Empire. 
The minutiae of organization, the more or fewer 
voters for the lower house, the existence of two or 
of three chambers, were matters of detail about which 
princes and people might differ but for which no one 
would fight. Yet these are the changes which the 
royal Solons supposed would make a constitution 
acceptable which had been already rejected because 
it placed an efficient control on arbitrary power and 
shifted a crown from one dynasty to another ! ! Bava- 
ria participated in the conferences without com- 
mitting herself to the result. The completed struc- 
ture was at once and peremptorily rejected by both 
Austria and Bavaria — for the precise reasons which 
controlled their judgment on the work of the 
Frankfort Parliament. The embryo fell stillborn 
from the hands of the royal midwives. 

In the brief time between the rejection of the first 
and the second constitution, Austria had tasted the 
sharpness of death and the sweetness of an unex- 
pected resurrection. 

The power of Austria was the real cause of the 
overthrow of both the constitutions. But for her 
intrigues backed by her own and the Russian arms, 
Germany could have succeeded in creating a pow- 
erful and constitutional government. Her power to 
speak with authority in the affairs of Germany de- 
pended on the fate of the Hungarian struggle. In 
April, 1849, that conflict had been closed by the 



GERMANY. 211 

entire success of the Hungarian arms. Between 
Hungary and Austria the impassable gulf had been 
fixed by the defeat of the Austrian army, their expul- 
sion from the kingdom, and the declaration of Hun- 
garian independence. The success of her arms dis- 
membered the Austrian empire. If left to herself, 
Austria could no longer control the affairs of Ger- 
many. She could no longer defeat the strivings of the 
people for an efficient and central constitution. She 
would not have dared even were she able, with con- 
stitutional and independent Hungary in her rear, and 
the mass of her people clamorous for similar privi- 
leges, to support a threat by acts. Her negative 
would have been an idle breath. Prussia could 
safely, peacefully, quietly have so controlled the rest 
of the German states as to insure the Imperial crown 
to her sovereign, while United Germany under its 
guidance and armed with the constitutional power of 
the people would have taken her place among the 
powers of Europe. 

In May, 1849, the Czar advanced to retrieve the 
waning fortunes of Austria. 

It was the re-construction of the Austrian Empire, 
shattered by the Hungarian explosion, which re- 
stored her power for mischief, and made her menace 
effectual to seal the fate of constitutional freedom in 
Germany. 

On the plains of Hungary shaken by the thunder 
of Russian battle let us seek the causes of this final 
disaster. 



SECTION V. 



THE REVOLT OF EUROPE IN 1848 



AGAINST THE 



HOLY CONSHRATOKS. 



HUNGARY. 



THE REVOLT OF EUROPE IN 1848 



AGAINST THE 



HOLY CONSPIRATORS. 



HUNGARY. 



Ihe fate of Hungary involved that of Europe. The 
revolution of 1848 was decided on the plains of Hun- 
gary. A crime was there committed which surpasses 
the annihilation of Poland in iniquity. A blow was 
there struck by Russia for universal empire in a 
single campaign more decisive than half a century of 
victory and robbery. One of those blunders was 
committed by England in her indifference which is 
wor^e than a crime : for the crime passes away with 
the perpetrator and the victim — while the blunder 
entails slavery and blood on untold generations. The 
principles of the Holy Alliance triumphed by prompt- 
nesSj energy, and logical consistency. The friends of 
liberty fell because of the lukewarmness, the selfish- 
ness, the indifference of the free nations of the world. 
The cause of Hungary deserves to be stated for our 
instruction and for our warning. It is rich in the 



216 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

prophecy of history. Happy the nation that shall 
read it aright ! 

The Hungarian war was at no time a revolution. 
It fell by accident in the era of revolutions — and was 
confounded with them. It was not a struggle for 
new rights, but a defensive war for old rights. It 
aimed at no change in the form of government — 
but sought to maintain the existing form against ille- 
gal alterations. It was not even to punish with 
deposition a king who traitorously assailed the con- 
stitution he had sworn to support. Without the 
consent of the National Diet, the King renounced 
his crown, abandoned the duties of government, and 
arbitrarily transferred them to Francis Joseph who 
was not even the legal heir apparent of the crown. 
He refused to accept it with its constitutional lim- 
itations, abrogated the constitution, arrogated to 
himself arbitrary power, and made war on the 
people of Hungary to enforce his daring usurpa- 
tion. It was only then — in the absolute vacancy of 
the throne, and on the absolute refusal of the only 
crown known to the Kingdom of Hungary — that the 
National Diet drew the sword, not to expel a lawful 
incumbent of the throne, but to repel an insolent 
invader of the national independence. It was not 
till their arms had achieved victories which converted 
their right into a fact, that they announced that fact 
to the nations of the world — and by their declaration 
proclaimed the fall of the house of Hapsburg-Lor- 
raine. If that house now wield the sceptre of Hun- 
gary, it is no sceptre known to the history of Europe. 
It is one made after the fashion of that of the Czar — 



HUNGARY. 217 

and by him placed in the hand that holds it. The 
national crown of Hungary ceased to exist from the 
14th of April 1849. The title of her master is that 
of conquest. It is nothing more or better. 

Hungary for a thousand years has been the seat of 
a constitutional and independent monarchy, coeval 
with the infancy of the nation, reared upon the feudal 
plan, and guarded with the feudal jealousy of arbi- 
trary power. Her constitution out dates by centuries 
the royal house whose perjured hands have been lifted 
against it. It was venerable and mighty when Ru- 
dolph of Hapsburg was a petty prince with his crown 
to win. It was no bundle of musty charters wrung 
from the niggardly hands of absolute princes — but 
the birthright of the nation, the law whence their 
princes drew their rights, the limit which confined 
their powers. It was entwined around the very 
heart-strings of the nation, and could be ruined only 
by their destruction. 

The Diet of Hungary was the assembly of the 
nation, vested with their supreme legislative powers. 
It was divided into two houses — the upper, wherein 
sat the magnates and prelates — the lower, correspond- 
ing to the English Commons, and composed of the 
representatives of the lesser nobility and the towns. 
This venerable body was the sole source of law 
known to the Hungarian constitution : and its convo- 
cation was imperatively required by the law every 
three years. 

The delegates to the lower house were elected at 
the " congregations," or meetings of the nobility of 
the "comitat." The "comitat" is the county, the 
28 



218 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

congregation the county court of the early English 
law. Nobility followed descent, not race. Men of 
every race might be and were of this class of nobles, 
and every child followed the condition of the parent. 
The Croat, the Servian, the Czech participated in 
the privileges and rank of the nobility, as well as the 
Magyar : while the vast majority of the Magyars as 
well as of the rest were not noble. One in every 
twenty of the whole population was noble, and con- 
sequently entitled to political privileges. Under the 
French charter of 1830, only one in about two hun- 
dred of her forty millions, held the right of suffrage. 
The nobility of Hungary were over five hundred 
thousand. The population of Magyar descent were 
over five millions. The whole population of the 
Kingdom were about fifteen millions. The whole 
political power was therefore confined to about five 
hundred thousand persons. 

But the noble was not necessarily an aristocrat, nor 
even generally rich. The vast majority were men of 
the middle class in life, or else of the class of peasant 
nobles — the latter by birth, the former in cultivation 
and condition. Of these elements was the Diet com- 
posed which for centuries had given laws to Hungary, 
and which voted by acclamation the reforms of 1848 
which provoked their ruin. 

The crown of Hungary was for centuries elective — 
as were all the other crowns of Europe that now 
forget their lowly origin in their lofty claims to the 
right divine. The mists which hang round the morn- 
ing of history have always been the refuge of royal 
pride to conceal the nakedness of its birth. It has ever 



HUNGARY. 219 

aspired to draw its title to rule from the gift of God 
rather than the will of man; and' the illusion of historic 
perspective which blends the heavens and the earth in 
the distance of the dim horizon has served to veil the 
fiction of a divine diploma for usurpations which time 
has half covered with the hoary emblems of right. 
This pestilent delusion has hitherto proved ineradi- 
cable save by the sword or the axe. But no such 
illusion conceals the source of the title to the Hun- 
garian crown. The fatal day of Mohacs extinguished 
in 1526 the House of Jagellon. The Hungarians 
conferred the vacant crown on Ferdinand I. hedged 
around with the limitations of the constitution, the 
coronation oath, and the formal right of resistance to 
his illegal acts. He acquired no arbitrary power, nor 
even an hereditary title. It was not till 1687 that the 
crown was entailed, by a law of the Diet, on the heirs 
male of the House of Hapsburg : and the pragmatic 
sanction of 1723 first admitted the heirs female into 
the line of the succession. But these acts merely 
made the crown hereditary, they did not release it 
from its previous limitations. They were imposed 
anew, with additional limitations. The crown of 
Hungary had always been conferred upon conditions 
only. Upon their observance rested the obedience 
of the people : and five times in one century did they 
grasp their arms to repel or to punish the aggressions 
of their princes. In 1222 the Hungarians had forced 
the Golden Bull on Andreas II. — the Magna Charta 
of Hungary, — and it continued to the last day of the 
monarchy the authentic declaration of the rights of 
the nation. The pragmatic sanction, formally adopted 



220 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

by the Diet, reiterated — as a condition of the con- 
cession it contained — that ancient fundamental law, 
that Hungary should never be governed according to 
the laws of any other kingdom; that it was and 
should be independent of any other state, and should 
remain in continual union with the hereditary states 
of Austria; that every heir of the throne must be 
crowned before he ascended it, and before his coro- 
nation confirm the national liberties and laws, customs 
and privileges, in a formal diploma, and with the solem- 
nities of an oath; and that till such oath should be 
taken, the title of the heir to the crown should have 
no validity. It was further provided that "all parts 
of the Kingdom of Hungary re-conquered or to be 
re-conquered should remain embodied in the king- 
dom;" and that on the extinction of the House of 
Hapsburg, the right of election should revert to the 
nation. So strict, so precise, so jealous, so inexo- 
rable were the Hungarians when committing their 
liberties to the guardianship of power. No crown 
in Europe is so clearly held only by a conditional 
title. If Hungary can be governed by her own laws 
only, any decree not sanctioned by the Diet is illegal. 
If Hungary is to be independent of every other 
state, she is entitled to a ministry for the conduct of 
her own affairs, responsible to herself alone — else she 
is not independent. If all the fragments of her ter- 
ritory are to be and remain integral parts of her 
kingdom, there exists no power in the crown to 
divide her territory without the consent of the Diet. 
These points bear directly on the struggle of 1848. 
They were wise far-sighted and practical provisions 



HUNGARY. 221 

against the dangers to the independence of Hungary 
from the numerous and powerful states over which 
the House of Hapsburg reigned, by different titles, 
and with various powers. 

The laws and usages of Hungary defined the pre- 
rogatives of her kings to be — the execution of the 
laws, the powers of war and peace, of coinage and 
the post, the administration of justice according to 
the laws and through the ordinary Courts, and the 
dispensing of mercy and of honor. With a change of 
name these words would describe the prerogatives 
of the constitutional kings of England. 

The ambition of the House of Hapsburg had accu- 
mulated in the course of centuries on the heads of its 
princes the several crowns which now glitter in the 
constellation of the Austrian empire. The Counts 
of Hapsburg and Tyrol grew by conquest and diplo- 
macy to be kings of Bohemia on the one side, and of 
Lombardy and Venice on the other, gradually united 
under the same rule all the intermediate territories, 
and under the forms of election rendered the Imperial 
crown of Germany hereditary in their house. The 
same person held, with the crown of Hungary, those 
of the other kingdoms and principalities: but they 
were held by different titles, they were politically 
foreign to each other, and their only union was in 
their common head. The king of Hungary gained 
no new powers over Hungary from his associated dig- 
nities — as George, Elector of Hanover brought no 
accession of power to George, King of England. He 
ruled in Hungary by her laws only; to her his other 
dominions were foreign : and she never in law or in 



222 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

fact formed any part of the German Empire. Her 
boundaries and her laws severed her from every other 
state, in isolated independence. There was a per- 
petual struggle of her kings to break down the wall of 
partition between the separate nationalities under their 
sway, and to blend them into one simple monarchy. 
But their resistance was as pertinacious and as cease- 
less as the encroachment: and while Bohemia and 
Austria and the Tyrol gradually yielded to the inces- 
sant assaults of the Imperial head., and lost the sub- 
stance while they retained the shadow of their ori- 
ginal freedom and independence, Hungary, more 
resolute, more warlike, or more fortunate, never, for 
an instant succumbed to art or force. Her sturdy 
citizens foiled the one and broke the other on many 
a well fought field and by many a formal statute. 
The violation of their rights was made the occasion 
for their re-affirmance ; as the Magna Charta of Eng- 
land was re-enacted and confirmed by the parliament 
as protests against its violations by their kings. In 
1790, when Leopold succeeded Joseph II. — whose 
reign was one of despotic liberalism, and whose en- 
ergies had been mainly bent towards the obliteration 
of Hungarian nationality, — the Diet re-enacted and 
imposed on him the declaration " that Hungary was 
a country free and independent in her entire system 
of legislation and government ; that she was not sub- 
ject to any other people or state ; and that she should 
have her own separate existence and her own consti- 
tution, and be governed by kings crowned according 
to her national laws and customs." 



HUNGARY 223 

This was the answer of the Hungarian Diet to the 
centralizing policy of the Imperial head. They cher- 
ished their national independence. They clung to 
their national laws. They forced on their princes 
perpetual recognitions of their prescriptive rights. 
They would know nothing of an Austrian Empire. 
They remained and were resolved to remain citizens 
of Hungary, subject to the constitutional king of Hun- 
gary. Their isolated position — in the midst of jealous 
despotisms, alone free — gave them the habit and im- 
posed on them the burthen of perpetual vigilance. 
They were forced to defend the errors that they might 
not lose the defences of their antique bulwarks. They 
were heavy and frowning battlements of the feudal 
age ; but they looked defiance on despotic power in 
the prince, and this excused their gloomy hostility to 
popular privileges. They were the only protection 
of the people, and the people loved and defended 
them. They would cheerfully have amended them, 
but they feared to pull down the old battlements to 
widen and deepen the foundations, lest while de- 
fenceless and in the process of repair, the powers of 
despotism should rush on and overwhelm them. 
The abuses of their constitution and laws were soft- 
ened by usage, and were endeared to them by the 
blessings with which they were associated. But still 
the lapse of time was visible to the eye ; and the pat- 
riots of Hungary felt the spirit of the age, and only 
awaited a propitious day to make the necessary 
changes. 

Three parties struggled in the Diet, in the forms of 
constitutional debate, for the control of the policy of 



224 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

the country. One clung to the time-honored edifice 
as the perfection of human wisdom which alteration 
could ruin but not improve. They corresponded to 
the Tories of the English Parliament. Another 
sought by moderate reforms to remove the outgrown 
relics of a barbarous age, and to replace them by the 
institutions of the nineteenth century. A third rep- 
resented the wishes and the intrigues of the Imperial 
courts consisted chiefly of the officers or dependents 
of government, were looked on as traitors to the 
country, and were powerless and despised. 

The popular party, lead by Kossuth and Batthianyi, 
embodying all the ability of the legislature, sought 
no revolutionary changes in the dynasty, in the re- 
lations of the King to the Diet, or in the relations of 
the kingdom to the provinces of the empire. They 
strove by legislative acts, under the sanction of the 
King, for those reforms of their internal administra- 
tion which should make their government in fact 
what it was already in law, to guard by fit defences 
the rights they already held, and by expanding 
the foundation to strengthen the structure of the po- 
litical edifice. They had the substantial body of a 
free constitutional government — such an one as the 
English constitution prior to 1688. They aimed by 
peaceful and parliamentary reforms to introduce those 
changes which cost England two revolutions, twenty 
years of war, twelve of absolute despotic rule, a 
change of dynasty, a century and a half of embittered 
political strife, and which the reform bill of 1831 only 
half secured. They were no empirics, no dema- 
gogues, no destructives of the school of the Jacobins, 



HUNGARY. 225 

no preachers of the Red Republic. They were 
statesmen trained in the great school of parliamentary 
politics, dealing with an old and venerated constitu- 
tion so as to infuse new vigor into its body without 
destroying it. They did their work in an artist-like 
style. 

The grievance to be redressed flowed from institu- 
tions which had outlived the reasons of their intro- 
duction. The feudal system still subjected the peas- 
antry to the burthens of personal service. Their lands 
were held subject to oppressive tenures limiting the 
title and diminishing the value of the ownership. 
Out of fifteen millions of citizens only half a million 
of nobles held political privileges; and while they 
engrossed the power were exempt from the bur- 
thens of the state. To raise the peasant to the level 
of the citizen, all that was required was — to emanci- 
pate him from personal service — and his land from 
feudal burthens — and to extend the right of suffrage 
and the liability to taxation to all orders of the state. 
This was no revolution — but a great renovation. It 
was this that Kossuth and Batthianyi and their asso- 
ciates had struggled for in vain for years, against the 
hostilities, the corruptions, the pertinacious opposi- 
tion of the court. The Hungarian affairs were con- 
ducted by the ministry at Vienna, who while in law 
responsible, were enabled to evade that responsibility 
by their position, by their connexion with the admin- 
istration of the rest of the empire, and by the materi- 
als of which they were constituted. The indispensa- 
ble condition of success in any effort at reform was — 
the obtaining of a national Hungarian ministry, in fact 
29 



226 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

as well as in law. This was possible only by severing 
the Hungarian ministry from the irresponsible bu- 
reaucracy which guided the affairs of the empire at 
the nod of the court of Vienna. To the obtaining 
of this great end as the means of every other reform, 
the great leaders of the Diet devoted their sleepless 
and untiring energies. 

The events of February 1848 in Paris were felt 
on the banks of the Danube, and in the halls of the 
Hungarian Diet. At the sound of that stirring voice, 
even the free Hungarian gathered new energy in the 
cause of freedom. Kossuth, even before the news 
from Paris had reached Pressburg, seemed inspired 
by the revolutionary air with prescience of the future, 
and had pronounced him worthy to be called the 
second founder of the house of Hapsburg who should 
reform the Austrian government on the basis of con- 
stitutional institutions; while he declared that Hun- 
gary could never be assured of the desired reforms, 
so long as the government of that monarchy, whose 
head was the same with that of Hungary, should 
stand in direct contradiction with the principles of 
her constitution — so long as that ministerial council 
of state, which conducted the common interests of 
the empire, should continue to exert a decisive 
though unconstitutional influence in the internal con- 
cerns of Hungary. 

On the 3d of March — eight days after the over- 
throw of Louis Philippe had shaken Europe — Kos- 
suth lifted his warning voice in tones of prophetic 
wisdom before the Diet, and their echo rang through 
the empire, far beyond the confines of Hungary, like 



HUNGARY. 227 

the reverberations of thunder among the mountains. 
"I speak my firm convictions — he said — when I say 
that the clinging to the perverse policy which opposes 
at once the interests of the people and their rightful 
claims of national freedom, must compromise the 
future of the dynasty. Unnatural systems may sus- 
tain themselves long — for it is a long way between 
the patience and the despair of a people : but there 
are systems whose long endurance has diminished, 
not increased their strength, and the hour comes when 
it is dangerous to try to sustain them : for their long 
life has only ripened them for death; and death one 
can share, but not put off. The people is eternal : 
and eternal we wish the fatherland of this people, and 
the glory of the dynasty which rules over us. But 
the dynasty must choose between its welfare and the 
maintenance of its rotten system; and I fear, unless 
the loyal declarations of the people intervene, this 
ossified system will seek a short respite in the revival 
of the now slumbering Holy Alliance, at the Court 
of the dynasty." 

The 13th of March followed his prophecy with the 
confirmation of history. The Court hypocritically 
bowed a reluctant and ambiguous compliance with 
the demands of the people, and calmly awaited the 
hour of reaction. The news of that day combined 
the floating thought of the Diet at Pressburg into a 
definite shape. A deputation to Vienna, headed by 
Esterhazy, Batthianyi and Kossuth, was immediately 
despatched to demand of the King a national and re- 
sponsible ministry. Their demands were complied 
with on the 19th of March 1848. The Archduke 



228 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

Stephen was commissioned as Viceroy, and Batthi- 
anyi was charged with the construction of a national 
ministry, which the pressing emergency required 
without delay. On the 23d the chief members were 
announced to the Diet and greeted with tumultuous 
joy — as the pledge of the fulfilment of the national 
hopes. The spirit of a new life seemed breathed over 
the Diet. It was filled with the representatives of a 
single class, men who enjoyed a monopoly of the pow- 
ers of government and an exemption from its burthens, 
and were the chief possessors of those feudal rights 
which the progress of time had converted into irrita- 
ting shackles on the industry of the nation and the 
freedom of her citizens. Every concession was a 
sacrifice of selfishness to patriotism, of the powerful 
to the powerless — not at the bidding but in spite of 
the hostility of the government. Yet this aristocratic 
body, this close corporation, this monopoly of the 
rights of sovereignty, in a week, strode over the space 
it had taken England a century and a half of painful 
conflict to accomplish by doubtful victories and nig- 
gardly concessions. By acclamation of the privi- 
leged orders — almost by unanimity — in the days be- 
tween the 18th and 23d of March 1848, peacefully, 
quietly, legally and cheerfully, the Diet of Hungary 
achieved the results of 1688 and 1831 almost without 
a division of the Houses, and with the entire and grate- 
ful concurrence of the nation. These changes were 
the spontaneous gift of the privileged class to the 
requirement of justice and sound policy. They were 
not wrung from them by the external pressure of the 
mob, nor by the armed might of the country. They 



HUNGARY. 229 

were the fruits of free government freely distributed 
to all by the few who had engrossed them. So utterly 
false is it that these great concessions were flung down 
by the greedy leaders of the aristocratic party, as 
necessary sacrifices in a critical hour, when the favor 
of the people must be bought at any cost. 

The most important of these laws was that relative 
to the responsible ministry for Hungary. It was a 
great constitutional charter declaring anew the fun- 
damental law of the state, and without which every 
other was waste paper. The law is comprehensive and 
statesmanlike, embracing a vast multitude of details 
that nothing might be left for inference or dispute 
in its execution — yet the fundamental principle on 
which all depended was comprised in a few simple 
words. Their power lay in the readiness of the 
nation to die for them. 

The law affirmed the sacredness of the person of the 
King and of the Palatin when exercising his powers 
in his absence. It declared that his Majesty and the 
Palatin exercised the executive power in the sense of 
the laws, through the organ of the responsible minis- 
try, without the signature of some one of whom resi- 
dent at Pesth no order or command of the King 
should be of legal obligation. To the ministry resident 
in Pesth it committed all the affairs of the nation, civil, 
military, religious and financial, which hitherto had 
been conducted at Vienna through the various coun- 
cils or chanceries. The appointment of ecclesiastical 
dignitaries, the conferring of titles and orders, the dis- 
pensations of grace, were confided to the personal will 
of the sovereign : but the disposal of the military force 



230 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

beyond the limits of the Kingdom could only be in ac- 
cordance with orders signed by a responsible though 
non-resident minister : and the receipts and expendi- 
tures of each year were required to be reported to 
the Diet for their consideration in detail. 

The other laws of these prolific days extended the 
elective franchise to every resident of Hungary and 
of the kingdoms united with her without distinction of 
class who paid a moderate tax ; thus they destroyed 
the political monopoly of the noble class. They sub- 
jected the persons and property of every class to pro- 
portionate taxation — and abolished the exemption 
of the nobles. They repealed the soccage burthens 
and feudal rights — conferring on the peasantry at 
once personal freedom and absolute titles, while the 
landlords were partly compensated at the cost of the 
state. They abolished the titles and confiscated the 
lands of the ecclesiastics — but provided for their sal- 
aries out of the coffers of the state. They released 
the press from the censor's gag. They converted the 
mass of the citizens into a national guard for the 
maintenance of the internal peace. 

On the 11 th of April 1848 was celebrated the 
passing away of old things. The King of Hungary, 
surrounded by the magnates of the Kingdom and the 
constitutional ministry, appeared in the Hall of the 
Diet at Pressburg amid the clamorous greetings of 
a joyous assembly : and, in the presence of the august 
Diet of the realm, formally and solemnly signed and 
sanctioned the acts of the session which was about to 
close. The approval — an antique formulary — is worth 
translating. 



HUNGARY. 231 

" Having graciously heard and graciously approved 
the petitions of our Court and faithful Archbishops, 
Bishops, Abbots Magnates, Nobles, &.c. &,c, of Hun- 
gary and the united territories, we command that the 
above named articles of law which have been laid 
before us for our sanction be accordingly registered. 
We approve, confirm, and authorize them, and pro- 
nounce them valid as well word for word as in their 
whole extent. We extend to them our Kingly sanc- 
tion ; and, by this our royal Brief, we pronounce them 
good and sanction them; while we assure our faithful 
States that we will ourselves observe and cause to be 
observed by others the above laws which we have 
freely approved. Ferdinand. 

Batthianyi." 

Pressburg, 11 April. 

Those names and that date speak volumes. They 
still stand there a damning testimony against the 
iniquities that followed them — still witnessing the cry 
of Batthianyi's righteous blood from the ground to 
Heaven for vengeance against the deep damnation of 
his taking off. 

These laws contained every thing the people of 
Hungary desired. They were stained by no blood, 
wrested by no violence, stripped the King of no legal 
prerogative. They were the peaceful, constitutional, 
regular enactments of the acknowledged Legislature 
of the Kingdom, freely approved by the King, and 
under his special sanction put into active operation. 
He came from Vienna to Pressburg — from Austria to 
Hungary — from beyond the kingdom within its lim- 



232 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

its — and therefore he freely came — for the purpose of 
approving them. Whether he liked them or not, is 
nothing to the purpose. He may have thought them 
ruinous — but he made no protest, he uttered no ob- 
jection. We can listen to no mental reservations : 
to such a plea the only reply is an appeal to arms. 
These enactments were the legal results of a constitu- 
tion equal in venerable age and dignity with that 
of England, and by them renovated with all the life 
of popular power. By them the nobles freely abro- 
gated the invidious distinctions which consigned one 
half the people to the caprice and the power of the 
other, and by the breath of freedom created out of 
the dry bones of their serfs a nation of freemen, an 
army of heroes — ready at the voice of their country 
to devote themselves as an army of martyrs. Hun- 
gary was as England had been after Charles signed 
the Petition of Right. Whoever struck a blow at 
this law was the revolutionist — be he King or Jacobin. 

But if these laws stood, they were fatal to the 
dream of Austrian unity. It were vain to talk of 
merging her various nationalities into one simple 
indivisible irresponsible despotism after the model of 
Russia. It was equally vain to suppose so cherished 
an idea would yield to any thing but inexorable ne- 
cessity. It • might be postponed — not abandoned. 
The question was merely one of time and means of re- 
gaining by fraud or force what an evil hour had lost. 

Every province of the empire had claimed the 
rights of man. A Diet was sitting filled with their 
representatives under the Imperial sanction to con- 
trive securities for those rights. The main army was 



HUNGARY. 233 

busy in Italy. The home armies were disorganized, 
or of doubtful faith. The Hungarians were not a peo- 
ple to be trifled with. To strike and not kill would be 
worse than folly — it would be fatal. Fury furnished 
arms and Satan was prolific of devices. The clique 
who held the feeble Emperor in leading-strings while 
they controlled affairs in his name took refuge in 
the diversity of nationalities, whose adverse claims 
had shaken the Empire, and whose spirit they had 
devoted their utmost power to break. The Sclavo- 
nians might be encouraged to fight the battles of the 
Emperor for promised concessions — which the hour 
of victory would enable them to retract, or at least 
leave them equally able to combat. Jellachich was 
tempted, and proved a pliant instrument: treason, 
treachery, and rebellion were the honest implements 
of the warfare: and the actors were simple enough 
to suppose themselves concealed by the thin veil of 
the royal word and plighted faith. 

The realm of Hungary, its crown, its Diet, and its 
constitution embrace four several kingdoms, those of 
Hungary, Croatia, Dalmatia, and Sclavonia, and the 
Grand Duchy of Transylvania — as England, Scotland, 
and Ireland, originally three several kingdoms, now 
form one united kingdom, under the same crown, and 
represented in the same parliament. For eight cen- 
turies these states had formed an integral part of 
the Hungarian kingdom, enjoying the equal protec- 
tion of its constitution, represented in the Diet, 
having their voice in the administration; and it was 
a part of the coronation oath that this union should 
be maintained. Besides their representation in the 
30 



234 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

national Diet, they enjoyed their congregations of 
the comitats, and had local Diets for the regulation of 
their local concerns. The most important of these 
Diets met at Agram in Croatia. We have the au- 
thority of the Imperial proclamation of June 10 
1840 confirming the voice of history, that for these 
eight centuries the national Diet had respected the 
rights of the united kingdoms, and that they were 
without reasonable grounds of complaint. They were 
included in all the great reforms of the Diet of 1848, 
whether political, social, industrial, or financial. The 
law was the same for them that it was for Hungary 
itself. 

But, in Croatia and Sclavonia the inhabitants were 
chiefly of that Sclavonian race which spreads through 
the Turkish provinces of the Danube, and extends 
over the greater part of the Russian empire, and 
under various names peoples Bohemia and Moravia 
and the plains of Poland. 

Croatia was the chief field of their activity in Aus- 
tria, because there they were less mingled with other 
races that swarm through its agglomerated provinces, 
and the Diet of Agram and the habits of political 
life which the Hungarian constitution favored gave 
opportunity for the cultivation and expression of pub- 
lic opinion. 

The versatility of Russian diplomacy has enabled 
the Czar, in the pursuit of universal empire, to substi- 
tute the feeling of nationality for the enthusiasm of 
freedom; and to draw to himself, by the deep feeling 
of relationship, the sympathies of the inhabitants of a 
third of the Austrian and half of the Turkish empires. 



HUNGARY. 235 

Russian agents, intrigues, and gold have given a uni- 
versality and life to the Sclavonic nationality among 
all the provinces of the empires among which the 
vicissitudes of a thousand years have divided them, 
which has stripped Turkey of Bessarabia, has weak- 
ened her hold on Wallachia and Moldavia, and causes 
the inhabitants of Dalmatia, Croatia, and Servia to look 
with more affection to the Czar at St. Petersburg than 
to the constitutional crown of their King at Vienna. 
So Russia prepares far beforehand the march of her 
armies and the solid foundations of her fatal rule. 
This feeling of nationality, based on community of 
origin, evidenced by community of language more or 
less nearly related, and looking for its realization be- 
yond the political relations of the present, was di- 
rectly antagonistical to the efforts of the Austrian 
court to obliterate all distinctive nationalities through- 
out its heterogeneous provinces, and to melt them all 
into one undivided empire. That court strove by 
every art to draw the eyes of the people away from 
the past, and fix them on the Imperial crown. The 
nobles were invited to Vienna, the German language 
was pressed on them, national memories were dis- 
couraged. The result of the effort was to make each 
people cling with greater pertinacity to their his- 
torical recollections and mother speech; and in all 
the departments of the Hungarian kingdom this 
tendency was strengthened by the thought that the 
assault on the language and the national feelings of 
the people was only the necessary preliminary to 
weaken first and then to destroy their time-honored 
constitution and their political freedom. 



236 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

For the time being the Russian sympathies of the 
Sclavonians were quiescent. They did the work of 
Russia by dividing and dismembering and enervating 
Austria. 

The only visible point of unity among these races 
was that of language. This feeling developed itself 
about 1835 in the vivid and active cultivation of 
the Sclavonian dialects. Nothing political seemed 
mingled with it, but it was implicitly involved in the 
concentration of the ideas of the people on historical 
and ethnological relations of the past, to the exclusion 
of, or in hostility to the political relations of the pre- 
sent, as the ground of nationality. Between 1840 
and 1848 the seed sown brought forth bitter fruits. 

One of the results of the opposing efforts of Aus- 
tria to centralize the empire and of the Hungarians 
to preserve their national rights was the adoption by 
the Diet of the Magyaric language as that of official 
intercourse. This chiefly served as the pretext, it 
certainly was the occasion for the development of the 
hostility of the inhabitants of Croatia and Sclavonia 
against Hungary, as well as against the central Impe- 
rial government. Sclavonia and Croatia were parts 
of the kingdom of Hungary chiefly inhabited by the 
Sclavonian race speaking dialects of the Sclavonian 
language. Croatia had about five hundred and thirty- 
one thousand five hundred Sclavonia about three 
hundred and fifty-two thousand seven hundred in- 
habitants — together only about eight hundred and 
eighty-four thousand two hundred souls. They 
formed part of a kingdom of about fourteen or fifteen 
millions of people — speaking thirteen substantially 



HUNGARY. 237 

different languages. The languages were more nu- 
merous than the races, and many spoke the Magyaric 
language who were not of Magyar origin. Divided 
according to races, the kingdom of Hungary held 
about five millions and a half of Magyars, five mil- 
lions and a half of Sclavonic origin, three millions 
of Wallachs, one million four hundred thousand 
Germans, and three hundred and eighty thousand 
of various other races and languages. But there 
was no one Sclavonic tongue common to all the 
races of Sclavonic origin. Those who spoke Croa- 
tian did not amount to a million in the whole 
Kingdom, those who spoke Servian, scarcely to a 
million, the Slovack language was spoken by about 
half a million, the Ruthenes language by about six 
hundred thousand, and three hundred thousand Jews 
spoke a language of their own. German was spoken 
by about two millions, and Magyaric by over six mil- 
lions of the people of the Kingdom. Sclavonian was 
not even the exclusive language of Sclavonia and of 
Croatia. The rest of the people of Hungary spoke 
the babel of tongues whose very names are known 
only to the ethnologist, and whose political weight 
was insignificant. 

The judicial and legislative proceedings the debates 
and the laws of the land were all in Latin. A change 
from a dead language, spoken only by the learned, 
and utterly unknown to the mass of the people, to 
some one living language was the dictate of the high- 
est statesmanship as well as of the simplest common 
sense. It was one of the cherished designs of the 
cabinet of Vienna to procure the substitution of Ger- 



238 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

man ; for the strongest link of national unity has often 
been proved to be language. Nationality is a com- 
munion of thoughts, feelings, sentiments, and pursuits : 
and community in neither of them is possible when 
a diversity of tongues is an absolute barrier to easy 
and frequent interchange of ideas. The proud Ma- 
gyar spurned the suggestion: the wise defender of 
the national liberties repelled it as an insidious as- 
sault: the statesman rejected it as a remedy not 
meeting the disease. There was but one language 
which at all answered the essential conditions of 
being sufficiently developed and cultivated, of being 
spoken by a majority of the people of Hungary and 
by a large plurality of the people in the united 
kingdoms, of being the language of the leading and 
most powerful and influential class, and of being 
spoken by three times as many inhabitants as any 
one other language in the realm. 

Moved by such considerations the Diet, in a series 
of acts extending from 1830 to 1844, declared the 
Magyaric the language of debate in the Diet of the 
kingdom, of the authentic public laws, and for the 
conduct of public affairs by the high public func- 
tionaries. 

The law of 1839-1840 went rather beyond what 
the case required in exacting of all priests a know- 
ledge of Magyaric, and in requiring it to be taught in 
the schools of Hungary. 

The latter as oppressive to the Slovacks was re- 
pealed in 1847-1848. The former remained and 
gave occasion to some effervescence of feeling in 
Sclavonia and Croatia. But all were formally ap- 



HUNGARY. 239 

proved and sanctioned as formal and valid laws, not 
oppressive or impolitic, by Ferdinand V. the King 
of Hungary. They were the formal peaceful laws of 
the land. They were never the causes of national 
estrangement — but only the pretext behind which 
designing and ambitious men screened their insubor- 
dination. In the absence of any grievances they 
were made the pretext for the revolt of the Croats, 
under the lead of Jellachich — against the Imperial 
crown and the government of Hungary. It was as 
if the Welsh and Irish, merely because they are of 
Celtic race and their language of Celtic origin, with- 
out any other grievance, should revolt against the 
English government, and assert their right to dis- 
member the British empire in order to gratify their 
historic pride and national sympathies of race. But 
it must never be forgotten that this was not a question 
between the Imperial court and the Hungarians. They 
stood on the same side. The Emperor had signed 
and sanctioned the laws of the Diet. It was a revolt 
of the Croats against both the Emperor and the Hun- 
garian government to dismember Hungary without 
a grievance laid to her charge. 

The claim put forth by the Croatians to a separa- 
tion from the crown of Hungary rested on no speci- 
fied grievance. It had no foundation in the history 
the laws or the traditions of the people. It is by no 
means certain that the whole people felt any great 
interest in the demand. They who chiefly pressed it 
were men of ambitious views, connected with the 
government, of no special power, and probably con- 
scious that they could play a first part on the small 



240 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

theatre of Croatian nationality, but that they would 
always be insignificant before the united Diet and 
in the presence of the great leaders of the Hungarian 
nation. On the basis of legality, of national right, 
and of justice, there was no sort of pretext for the 
clamor for national separation. The case of South 
Carolina for secession was strong and irresistible 
compared with it. 

Yet as matter of high policy, if the great events of 
1849 could have been foreseen, if it could have been 
known that Austria when humbled would sink so 
low as to accept the aid of Russia in her domestic 
difficulties, it might have been wise to conciliate even 
the unreasonable pretensions of Croatia by yielding 
the separation. But the refusal, if a blunder, was 
no wrong. 

The storm of 1848 blew the embers of discontent 
into the flames of rebellion — which an artful intriguer 
contrived to divert from the cracked and tottering 
edifice of Metternich's policy against the renovated 
structure of the Hungarian constitution. 

Among the deputations which in March 1848 
crowded Vienna none were more clamorous and im- 
portunate than the Croatian. They asked nothing 
less than the dignity of Ban for Jellachich — the chief 
agitator against the imperial government — and the 
erection of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Sclavonia, into a 
kingdom disconnected with Hungary. This was 
placed on the ground of community of race. By 
some diplomatic legerdemain, after interviews with 
the court clique, the main head vanished from their 
petition; yet the leaders boasted that the Austrian 



HUNGARY. 241 

ministry had conceded all they asked ; and Jellachich, 
invested with the dignity of Ban, returned to Agram, 
to fill the country with the novel watchword, — "The 
Unity of the Monarchy" — while every where the 
note of preparation was sounded against the Hunga- 
rians as separatists to be put down by arms. The 
unity of the South Sclavonian kingdoms had sud- 
denly become merged in some higher and invisible 
unity. The imperial general Nugent stood quietly 
by in the midst of the preparations. Batthianyi, 
instead of arming, sought accommodation by negotia- 
tion. Jellachich vouchsafed not even a reply to the 
invitation of the Palatin to a seat in the Council of 
State. The Hungarian ministry invoked the medi- 
ation of the court at Innspruck. Yet not till June 
and after being thrice required did Jellachich ap- 
pear. He was received with apparent coldness — and 
dismissed in peace. The Imperial proclamation of 
the 10th of June followed him with the charge of 
treason against the Emperor, of rebellious purposes 
against Hungary, and ambitious views for himself; 
and stripped him of all his dignities. The procla- 
mation ascribed the fears of the Croatians for their 
nationality to the seditious slanders of interested agita- 
tors, recalled the lapse of eight hundred years of 
peaceful union with Hungary, the uniform justice of 
the Diet, and its recent extension to them simultane- 
ously with the Hungarians of the great political re- 
forms of March, as the best assurance of their entire 
safety ; a#d reminding them of his coronation oath to 
maintain the integrity of the Hungarian crown, he 
vowed a new oath for the observance of the old. 
31 



242 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

This proclamation emanated from Innspruck, bore 
the name of Ferdinand, and covers by its sanction 
every act of the Hungarian ministry and Diet to its 
date. Yet not the slightest regard was paid to it by 
Jellachich. He proceeded in the face of the impe- 
rial court and army and officers with his preparations 
for war. He even refused to allow the Croatian regi- 
ment to march for Italy at the order of the ministry 
of war. He openly appeared, on the 19th June, 
nine days after the proclamation denounced him as 
a traitor, in Vienna, was recognized and treated with 
by the ministry, arranged with Latour the plan of 
operations, and returned in peace to Agram, appa- 
rently a traitor, secretly confirmed in his dignities, 
and worshipped as the saviour of the Imperial house. 
But the proclamation still stood unrevoked — a snare 
for the Hungarians, to entrap them into the belief that 
the court was on their side and would afford them 
the requisite aid to suppress the rebellion. Jellachich 
was secretly provided with money, and arms, and all 
the munitions of war by Latour from Vienna. Hra- 
browsky was ordered to stand neutral. When for ap- 
pearance sake he was compelled to rebuke the prepa- 
rations of Jellachich, he on the 6th of August threw 
off the mask, declared the proclamation of the 10th of 
June to have been revoked, and announced himself 
as the defender of the Imperial court against the 
faction which used Hungary for the division of the 
monarchy. Batthianyi again repeated his efforts at 
peaceful adjustment; but Jellachich insisted on the 
separation of Croatia, Sclavonia, and Dalmatia from 
the Hungarian crown. That condition was inadmis- 



HUNGARY. 243 

sible ; and the leaders parted with fierce words and 
defiances to be adjusted by arms on the banks of the 
Drave. — It was sufficiently plain that the demand of 
the deputation of March was suspended not aban- 
doned, and one need not be very conversant with 
public affairs to divine the terms Jellachich had wrung 
from the distresses of the court. The price of laying 
Hungary at their feet was to be — the concession of 
the Croatian claim to separation. 

Hungary now awoke when almost too late to the 
truth of Kossuth's prophetic words, and eagerly 
grasped her arms. Jellachich was not yet quite 
ready. Art must win yet a little delay. The Em- 
peror on the 21st of August peremptorily insisted 
that the Palatin should accommodate matters with 
the Croatians; but conditions were suggested which 
were inadmissible; and the trick shown out through 
the preliminary requirement that the Hungarians 
should suspend their tardy military preparations. 
This artifice was too transparent to be successful, and 
the Hungarians pushed on their preparations, till Fer- 
dinand's letter of the 4th of September removed all 
doubt from every mind for whom Jellachich was 
arming. In that letter the Emperor confesses his 
error in having supposed Jellachich ever intended 
to divide the territories of the Hungarian crown — re- 
vokes the proclamation of June the 10th — restores 
him to his dignities — and assures him of the Imperial 
confidence in his exertions for the benefit of the 
whole monarchy, the integrity of the Hungarian 
crown, and the development of the associated terri- 
tories. Not a word alludes to his warlike prepara- 



244 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

tions, to the aid of the Viennese ministry, to the 
view taken by the court of his purposes ; but Jella- 
chich is assured that the Emperor is convinced he 
never intended to divide the Hungarian Kingdom — 
though that had been the express demand on which 
the last attempt at reconciliation between Batthianyi 
and the Ban had failed ! ! 

On the 11th of September Jellachich crossed the 
Drave, on a pontoon bridge furnished by Latour 
from Vienna, and marched on Pesth the capital of 
Hungary. 

If preparations could not be postponed, at least 
they could be retarded by changing the persons at 
the head of affairs. On the 24th of September, when 
Jellachich was almost in sight of the capital, the 
Archduke Stephen, the commander-in-chief of the 
Hungarian army, received orders to vacate his post 
of Palatin. Instead of reporting the illegal order 
to the Diet, he secretly, at night, like a criminal, 
slunk from the capital and fled the country. Even 
this could not confuse the affairs of a government 
conducted by the trained statesmen of Hungary. 
This blow was followed up on the 27th of Septem- 
ber by an order dismissing the Batthianyi ministry, 
commissioning Vay to form another, appointing 
Lemberg royal commissioner for Hungary with the 
command of the Hungarian army, and commanding 
the obedience of citizens and. officers, civil and mili- 
tary. Neither order was signed by any responsible 
minister; and Lemberg was appointed to an office 
unknown to the laws. The Diet instantly declared 
the orders illegal and unconstitutional, forbade 



HUNGARY. 245 

obedience to them, and required the people to follow 
the orders of the president of the ministry and the 
committee of public defence. On the 28th, Lemberg 
was barbarously murdered by a rabble — whose deed 
was condemned and mourned by the Diet. 

On the 29th, this riddle of fraud and treachery was 
solved on the field of Velencze, where the Hungarian 
peasants half armed, undisciplined, under the luke- 
warm command of an Austrian General, Moga, but 
inspired with devotion for the land which secured 
them the rights of man, met and foiled Jellachich's 
superior and well appointed army. To him a check 
was equivalent to a defeat. He represented no na- 
tion; he was without a reserve; his whole resources 
were exhausted by that one blow ; and he vio- 
lated a truce, which he was driven to ask or accept, 
by hastily retreating — not towards Croatia — but to 
the nearest point on the Austrian frontier — on the 
direct road to the court whose authority he had been 
apparently defying. 

The Hungarians stopped the pursuit at the frontier. 
However convinced of the guilt of the court, they 
resolutely shut their eyes to the fact, and acted as if 
the question were between them and the Croatians. 
They were guilty of a great folly in pausing in their 
pursuit till they had annihilated Jellachich's army. 
The hour of victory was the best time for negotia- 
tions. They feared the reputation of revolutionists, — 
and played into the hands of the most unscrupulous 
of counter-revolutionists. 

The court tricks had been exposed and their 
plans defeated. Secrecy was no longer possible. 



246 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

The proclamation of the 3d of October threw off 
the mask and denounced war to the knife against 
Hungary and her freedom. It was as unambiguous 
and as significant as the attempt of Charles I. to 
arrest the five members in the House of Commons. 
Nothing remained but an appeal to the sword — not 
between Croatia, under whose mask Jellachich had 
been commissioned to destroy the Hungarian consti- 
tution — but between Hungary and the house of 
Hapsburg Lorraine, in whose name the war was 
now waged. 

That insolent proclamation assumed the right to 
dissolve the Diet, a gross and impudent usurpation — 
annulled the measures it had taken for the defence 
of the kingdom — created Jellachich, then in arms 
against the Hungarians, and dripping with their 
blood, the commander-in-chief of the Hungarian 
armies — declared all Hungary under martial law, 
which meant the substitution of despotic for legal 
authority — and confided to Jellachich the entire 
executive power of the kingdom in the absence of the 
King, in gross violation of the plain law of the land. 

The revolutionary outbreak of the 5th of October 
was the answer of the people to the proclamation, and 
shewed the deep sense of the danger to the newly 
acquired liberties of the empire which this outrage 
on Hungary occasioned. The people of Vienna rose 
to defend what they had acquired — for they knew 
that the fall of Hungary would drag them down. 
Still the Hungarian Diet and the Austrian assembly 
higgled over legal formalities for more than two 
weeks; and the march of the Hungarian army was 



HUNGARY. 247 

resolved on only after the imperialists were fully 
prepared to repel them. 

The battle of Schwechat arrested the advance of 
the Hungarians on the 30th of October, and com- 
pelled them to leave Vienna to her fate. She sur- 
rendered on the 31st: and Hungary lost by her delay 
an opportunity of changing, by a vigorous blow, the 
course of European politics. She gained only a 
month to arm. She might have gained a victory 
which would have made arming needless. 

That month was devoted to formal preparation for 
a struggle which all parties recognized as one for life 
and death. 

The court of Austria transferred the Diet to 
Kremsir — that they might be dependent on its plea- 
sure. The Emperor was at Olmutz. The control 
of affairs was in the hands of the reactionist party of 
the Imperial family, the Archduke Ludwig and the 
Archduchess Sophie, mother of the present Em- 
peror. The emergency called for energy unscru- 
pulous in its means, reckless of moral and legal ob- 
stacles in reaching its objects, relentless in vengeance, 
and not sick at the sight of righteous blood. There 
were only two possible courses. They must honestly 
accept and maintain the popular institutions which the 
Imperial word had conceded to the prayers of the 
people; or they must openly or secretly undermine 
or overthrow them, eradicate every trace of pro- 
vincial nationalities, and by force of arms march 
straight across the fragments of every constitutional 
and legal barrier to the establishment of a simple 
indivisible irresponsible despotism. The voice of the 



248 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

people, the cry of humanity, the whispers of con- 
science must be silenced, and will and the sword 
stand in the place of law and right. He who could 
not rise to the height of this pure iniquity was not 
the man for the crisis. He cumbered the field of battle, 
and must be removed. The Emperor Ferdinand V. 
was old and weak. Bred up under the shadow of 
Metternich's influence, he knew not how to act but at 
the dictation of stronger spirits around him. He was 
not very scrupulous even for a King, but he had some 
human feelings left. He was not darkly bent on anni- 
hilating Hungary, for his mind could not comprehend 
that liberty and despotism cannot lie down side by 
side in friendly embraces. He did not comprehend 
that the time had come to choose between them. He 
might have been induced to accept reasonable terms 
of adjustment — which would have brought quiet for 
the present at the expense of certain liberty to 
Austria for the future. The clique who guided 
affairs in his name, therefore, secluded him from the 
public — put in his mouth his official replies to depu- 
tations — and cut off all communication between him 
and the Hungarian ministry. But when urged openly 
to abrogate the constitution of Hungary, his supersti- 
tious mind recalled the tenure by which he held her 
crown — and he yielded no other answer to their 
urgency than that touching remonstrance — "But my 
oath — but my oath!" One so incapable of apprecia- 
ting the rights of a necessity was forthwith pronounced 
in family conclave unfit to rule. He was discovered to 
have a rudimentary conscience, and was at once de- 
clared not to belong to the royal species. They who 



HUNGARY. 249 

wielded the power behind the throne resolved that 
the empire needed a youthful head, and a less 
scrupulous conscience, unentangled by the sin and 
snare of constitutional oaths, who, free from duties 
might conquer rights and realize the idea of unity 
which had haunted Joseph II. The crown was torn 
from the aged brow of Ferdinand V. by family strife, 
and transferred to the head of a boy, who would prove 
a pliant tool, and might be educated in the virtues of 
a Nero under the auspices of an Agrippina. 

The abdication of the 2d of December was known 
on the 6th at Pesth. On the 7th the Diet declared 
that the crown was held only under conditions, and 
could not be abdicated or transferred but by their 
consent; that their law recognized no secret family 
arrangements as entitled to dispose of their national 
crown ; but that the Diet alone were authorized to 
provide for the regency or the succession. They 
therefore commanded the people and the officers of 
the kingdom to adhere to the constitution, to refuse 
obedience to the illegal usurpation which had been 
perpetrated against their liberties, and branded as a 
traitor him who should do otherwise. 

In the absence of a legal king, and of a legal min- 
istry, the Diet provided for the exercise of the powers 
of government by electing a ministry; and placed 
at its head Lewis Kossuth. The people greeted 
with joy the resolutions of the Diet ; and Gorgey and 
the army under his command formally gave in their 
adhesion to the national government. 

On the 16th of December Windeschgratz crossed 
the Leitha, on the crusade of despotism against Hun- 
32 



250 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

garian liberty. The miraculous efforts, the heroic 
struggles of this momentous campaign belong to 
another pen than mine. They stand with those of 
Poland alone on the page of modern history. I deal 
with their results. 

The Hungarian army retreated fighting, with their 
face to the foe, across the Danube. Their government 
sought safety in Debreczin. The day of Kapolna — 
the 26th of February — gave the Austrian army, by 
the divisions of the Hungarian generals and the 
traitorous inactivity of Gorgey, what the court con 
sidered their crowning victory. They thought the 
power of Hungary broken, and the spell of the revo- 
lutionary spirit dissolved. They breathed more 
freely, and stepped boldly to their object. They 
dealt summarily with the Diet of Kremsir and the 
constitution of Hungary. Only eight days after the 
battle, on the 4th of March, the charte octroyee of 
Stadion was published at Olmutz. It was proclaimed 
at Vienna on the 7th of March 1849. 

By a single stroke of the pen, it dissolved the Diet 
of Kremsir, because too slow in its movements for 
the popular zeal of the Court — it abrogated the Hun- 
garian constitution — it divided Croatia, Dalmatia and 
Sclavonia from all connection with Hungary — it com- 
bined all the territories over which the house of 
Hapsburg ruled into one great consolidated and cen- 
tralized empire, under the forms of a constitution, 
but under the reality of a despotism. It was a fit 
successor to those shadows of free institutions whose 
substance had withered away beneath the touch of 
Austrian despotism. It reserved to the monarch the 



HUNGARY. 251 

right to make the decrees requisite to its operation; 
and till then all things were to remain as they were. 

This act of audacious insolence reveals the depth 
and blackness of the perfidy of the court. History 
affords no parallel to it in modern times. It can only 
be illustrated by saying, it is as if George, Elector of 
Hanover, on his falling heir to the British crown, but 
even before he had set foot on English soil, had pro- 
mulgated a constitution razing to its foundation the 
bulwarks of English freedom, and blending in one 
empire under new forms England and Scotland, Ire- 
land and Hanover and Canada, with such rights as he 
saw fit to concede — during his good pleasure. It 
would not be a grosser outrage for the President to 
annul the state constitutions, proclaim the United 
States supreme and absolute, and himself their he- 
reditary and imperial head. 

The constitutional structure thus summarily dealt 
with was no mushroom growth of yesterday — but a 
sturdy oak of ages, beneath whose boughs genera- 
tions had risen, reposed, found shelter, and a grave. 
If this Hungarian constitution, imbued with the life 
of the nation — hoary with venerable age, yet vigo- 
rous pliant and expansive as youth — outdating every 
one of the upstart sovereignties which crowded 
around it for its ruin — alone the frontier and guardian 
of Europe while they were petty principalities or 
semi-barbarous and wandering hordes — bearding the 
imperious Turk while Austria was a subordinate 
dukedom and ere Russia was half a match for Po- 
land or for Sweden — if this time-honored growth 
could not escape the assassinating hands of those 



252 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

who hypocritically plead for time-worn and prescrip- 
tive governments, how shall those of newer date and 
less deep and spreading roots abide the whirlwind 
that will rush over them when this barrier is swept 
away ? 

This "charte octroy ee" of Count Stadion, ar- 
bitrary in its origin, unsatisfactory in its details, 
was a castle of cards piled up by a child to be blown 
down by his capricious breath. It was introduced 
by the dispersion of the Diet of Kremsir — which sat 
by a higher authority than any Diet this constitution 
could assemble : and its fate must ever impend over 
any successor having no independent power, no 
popular origin — and subject to be revoked by the 
paramount sovereignty which granted it. Its con- 
cessions to freedom were revocable graces emanating 
from the crown and only pending its pleasure. To 
call this liberty, and such waste paper a constitution 
is trifling on grave subjects and making a mock of 
things holy. 

That was precisely what the wily despots desired. 
If they could substitute these Sibylline leaves for the 
deep solid often defended and always impregnable 
barriers of the Hungarian constitution, founded in 
the hearts and inscribed all over with the proudest 
memories of the people — not only could the same 
power which gave them, revoke them; but while 
they remained, they would be a mere veil for the 
convenient concealment of the arcana of despotism 
beneath popular forms. It could offer no firm re- 
sistance to any design of the monarch: for there 
would be no terrible looking for of fiery indignation 



HUNGARY. 253 

for the violations of a constitution forced on a crowd 
of reluctant races. It must remain a piece of lifeless 
mechanism, moving at the nod of the central auto- 
crat, with puppets for actors treading its stage in 
dumb mimickry of the acts and contests of popular 
rule — having the form without the power thereof. 

Its very existence would be a perpetual protest 
against the existence of any inherent independent 
original power of sovereignty in the nation — that 
rottenness at the heart which made the French 
charter a mockery till 1830, and not much better 
from that time till 1848. It would have reared itself 
aloft — a stupendous fraud by which despotism, foiled 
in the field, had gained the reality of victory by con- 
senting to the formal humiliations of defeat. 

What all men foresaw as the consequence of the 
defeat of Hungary has come to pass even while I 
write. The issue which trembled in the scale of 
battle was not the substitution of the "charte oc- 
troyed" for the Hungarian constitution. It was the 
substitution of despotic power for constitutional free- 
dom of a thousand years in Hungary, or the triumph 
of popular power over the whole of Europe. That 
issue was tried and decided on the plains of Hungary, 
in 1849. Murder and rapine reigned till 1850. 
Late in 1851 an imperial decree sounded the passing 
bell of the languishing constitution — in declaring that 
the responsible ministry were thenceforth responsi- 
ble only to their Imperial master: and now while I 
write, another edict has declared that the whole 
baseless fabric has passed away — leaving a naked 
despotism, unveiled by even the drapery of freedom. 



254 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

The feet of those who carried out Hungarian Liberty 
have returned — and carried out its successor also. 

While the court at Olmutz gloried in their vic- 
tory, and their generals reposed in fancied security 
on their laurels, Lewis Kossuth organized with 
rapid energy a vast army, inspired with the hopes of 
heroes and the resolution of martyrs. On the 23rd 
of March, a month from the battle of Kapolna, the 
Hungarians resumed the offensive along the whole 
line of the Theiss. A series of rapid movements 
exploding in ruinous blows, and crowned by brilliant 
victories, in ten days, drove the Austrian army, along 
the whole line, from the Theiss to the right bank of 
the Danube, shattered its power, despoiled it of the 
prestige of victory, and freed the central plains of 
Hungary from the presence of a foe. 

This was the glorious result of ten days of con- 
tinued battle. Austria was again prostrated at the 
feet of Hungary: another blow which Hungary was 
able to strike, which Gorgey was ordered to strike, 
but which he traitorously neglected to strike, would 
have ended the war. 

This was the hour to proclaim to the world the 
political result of these victories. Hungary had been 
stripped of her constitution, invaded by an usurper, 
and her very existence threatened by military vio- 
lence. She had prostrated the assassin. She would 
no longer recognize his blood-stained brow as fit to 
bear her diadem. On the 14th of April the Hun- 
garian Diet solemnly pronounced the deposition of 
the house of Hapsburg from the throne of Hungary. 
This was merely the declaration of a fact. But there 



HUNGARY. 255 

were those who were interested to make the fact 
otherwise at any cost. 

That sword which was red with the blood of 
Poland had been freely tendered to Francis Joseph, 
in February, and again in March — but was refused. 
Thousands of Russian troops crowded the borders of 
Austrian-Poland ready for marching at a word. 
The overthrow of the Austrians in April first con- 
vinced the court that Hungary was more than their 
match. They were driven to choose between sur- 
render or Russian intervention. They preferred that 
Francis Joseph should rule as the viceroy of a despot, 
rather than be the constitutional king of a free 
people. Schwartzenburg took the place of Count 
Stadion — and flung himself into the arms of the Czar. 

The 10th of April had settled the fate of Win- 
deschgratz : on the 17th the line of the Danube was 
free from the presence of the enemy ; and Welden, on 
assuming the command, had no alternative but a pre- 
cipitate retreat to the Austrian frontier. His army 
was disorganized, dispirited, demoralized, and broken. 
The orders of the ministry, the dictates of military 
science, the settled plan of the campaign which Dem- 
binski had advised and Gorgey had approved, alike 
imperatively required the prompt unintermitting pur- 
suit of the retreating Austrians, and promised as its 
fruits their utter annihilation. Vienna was exposed — 
Gorgey's rear was unthreatened — a single battle 
would have ended the war — and the Hungarians 
could have dictated peace at Vienna before Russia 
could have been even summoned to the rescue. 
Yet Gorgey held his main army idle on the left 



256 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

bank of the Danube from the 21st of April till the 
20th of May — amusing his own and the national 
vanity with freeing the unimportant fortress of Buda 
from its Austrian garrison ; and then he whiled away 
the precious hours on the banks of the Waag, in the 
presence of an inferior enemy, till the middle of 
June — while the net was being drawn round his 
native land and the destroyers preparing in quiet 
their deadly blow. 

On the 27th of April the proclamation of Nicholas 
announced his intervention in the affairs of Hungary — 
for his own defence. The terms were arranged at 
Warsaw, where the young Emperor repaired to plot, 
amid the ruins of Poland, under the auspices of its 
destroyer, the murder of another nation, her equal in 
heroic grandeur, in historic renown, in priceless 
services to Europe in the past, and in importance 
to its safety for the future. 

From the 4th to the 11th of May the Russian 
corps crossed the several frontiers of Hungary. On 
the 12th the Imperial proclamation summoned the 
free Hungarians to unconditional slavery. On the 3d 
of June the first Russians reached Pressburg. Not 
till the middle of June did the general advance of 
the invaders begin. Gorgey quietly awaited their 
readiness. 

The early days of June were consumed in sharp 
but detached and insignificant conflicts on the line of 
the Waag — usually resulting in favor of the Hunga- 
rians, but deciding nothing. They introduced the 
inevitable hour of ripe preparation. 



HUNGARY. 257 

Hungary is a great plain surrounded by the Car- 
pathians and penetrated by the Danube — whose exit 
and entrance make two gates through the mountains. 
Around this mountain barrier lay the masses of Rus- 
sian and Austrian troops, ready to pour through the 
passes on the plains beneath. 

The children of Hungary, at bay within the fated 
circle, concentrated their power across the paths of 
their foes, and opposed their breasts to the threat- 
ening onset. 

The hour for advance having been wasted at the 
end of the campaign of April, the plan of the second 
campaign was confined to the defensive. The Hun- 
garian troops were to retreat — if driven back — from 
the frontier to the centre. Their united power would 
overmatch the enemy at any given point. They 
occupying the centre of a circle round which their 
enemies were disposed, could choose their time and 
point of attack with all their power, and thus defeat 
in detail the armies whose combined power they 
could not oppose. This plan also was sacrificed by 
Gorgey's traitorous disobedience. 

Haynau with the main Austrian army advanced 
along the Danube — Gorgey lay across his path. 

Paskewitch crossed the northern frontier with the 
main Russian army, to descend the vale of the Theiss 
and its tributaries. Dembinski opposed him. 

Jellachich, recovered from his castigation, threat- 
ened the southern frontier. Guyon and Vetter bade 
him defiance. 

Luders from Wallachia invaded Transylvania. 
33 



258 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

Bern created the force with which he harrassed his 
advance, and hemmed in his activity. 

With chivalrous folly, or with treacherous faith, 
Gorgey waited the readiness of his foes — and then 
with Quixotic madness assayed an impossibility 

Not till the middle of June, when Haynau was 
fully prepared, did Gorgey cross the Waag. He 
proved, by his incipient success, how decisive 
might have been an earlier activity — but at Pered 
and Zsigard the victory was wrested from his grasp 
by the fatal appearance of the Russians on the field. 
He was defeated, driven over the Waag, and when 
Haynau on the 27th of June, at last in the fulness of 
time, began his advance, Gorgey was compelled to 
retreat to Comorn. 

On the 1st of July he repulsed the assault of Hay- 
nau, and on the 2d he assailed the Austrians, but 
failed to drive them from their positions. 

At this critical moment he was informed of the 
elevation of Meszaros to the command in chief — whom 
he was ordered to obey. His wounded vanity vowed 
revenge, and he peremptorily refused obedience 
to the government, declined to unite his forces with 
the central army, and proceeded to act out his inde- 
pendent course. 

He wasted from the 3d to the 10th of July in inac- 
tivity — and then learned the advance of the Russians 
in his rear, threatening to cut him off from the Theiss. 
Necessity drove him to do what he had refused to 
duty and patriotism. 

Under cover of a feigned attack, on the 11th he 
fell back on Waitzen, only to encounter the Russians. 



HUNGARY. 259 

Paskewitch had begun his advance on the 18th of 
June, had pushed as far south as Gyongyos, and had 
sent a corps to Waitzen to cut off the communication 
of Gorgey with Dembinski. 

Gorgey assailed them fiercely on the 16th of July 
under the walls of Waitzen, and under cover of the 
-battle maintained by Nagy Sandor, he drew off his 
main army to the north by the valley of the Eupel, 
and away from the rest of the Hungarian forces. 
Perczel was distant only a few miles with a strong 
force, yet Gorgey gave him no notice to unite against 
the enemy. 

Grabbe crossed his path and cut short his northern 
tour at Losonez. By bold manoeuvring he evaded 
his antagonist, turned to the south, and suddenly pre- 
sented himself at Gyongyos, directly in the rear of 
the Russian army, on the 22d of July — on that very 
day engaged with a corps of Dembinski's army at 
Aszod. The Russians were defeated, and Gorgey 
enjoyed the exemption from attack which it secured 
him, but neglected the opportunity of at once annihi- 
lating a large body of the enemy, and effecting his 
union with the central army. 

Perversely flinging away his advantages, he turned 
again to the north, sought strong positions secured 
by skilful strategy amid the meanders and marshes 
of the Sajo, the Hermad and the Theiss, repelled 
repeated assaults of the Russians in the neighbor- 
hood of Tokay, and on the 25th of July gained such 
decisive advantages as opened once more a commu- 
nication by Tessa Fured with the main army. His 
delay of three days lost the chance, and his victory 



260 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

of the 28th of July was rendered fruitless by Pas- 
kewitch's crossing the Theiss — which compelled 
Gorgey to fall back to the left on Nyiregyhaza on 
the 31st, on the road to Arad. 

The plan of the Imperialists to invade Hungary 
by Paskewitch on the north and by Haynau on the 
west — to penetrate to the central plains, divide 
Gorgey from Dembinski, and with united forces crush 
the rebellion in detail, was now on the point of 
accomplishment. Paskewitch divided Dembinski 
from 'Gorgey. 

Dembinski despairing of union, withdrew from 
the upper Theiss to cover Szegedin, on which Hay- 
nau was rushing with overwhelming masses. 

His outposts were in sight when the Government 
retired to Arad. 

On the 2d of August Haynau occupied without 
resistance the fortress of Szegedin : on the 3d crossed 
the Theiss; on the 5th defeated Dembinski at 
Szoreg. 

The Hungarians retreated to Temesvar, instead of 
to Arad — another blunder ; but yet there was hope. 
Around Temesvar, to the south of Arad was concen- 
trated the combined power of Vetter and Guyon and 
Dembinski; and the name of Bern lent its power to 
the array. 

The latter had come from his mountain home in 
Transylvania to t'ake the command in chief at the sum- 
mons of Kossuth, while Vetter and Guyon after scat- 
tering the thrice beaten hosts of the treacherous Ban, 
the boasted saviour of the dynasty, had hastened to 
join Dembinski, shared the defeat of Szoreg, and now 



HUNGARY. 261 

were ready for the fatal day of Temesvar. Gorgey's 
column alone was absent from that field. The treason 
of Gorgey, inflicting many a stab on his native land, 
prepared from afar the final blow of that decisive day. 

He was retreating in two columns on Arad, when 
on the 2d of August Nagy Sandor was assailed at 
Debreczin by the Russians, and called for aid. He 
received laconic orders to retreat — and after a fi°:ht 
of ruinous bravery met Gorgey at Grosswardein. 

There three precious days fled in idleness, while 
Haynau was shattering the Hungarian force at Szoreg 
on the 5th ; and not till the 7th of August did he ad- 
vance on Arad — where Nagy Sandor arrived on the 
8th and Gorgey on the evening of the 10th. 

Gorgey was ordered instantly to advance to Tem- 
esvar for the final conflict — but when the order was 
given the day was decided. His delay had been 
fatal. His languid preparations were abruptly broken 
off by the fugitives from the stricken field. 

On the 10th of August Haynau had attacked Bern, 
who displayed the full power of his genius, and 
was confident of success. The Austrian force was 
already broken — when the Russian and Austrian 
reserves opportunely reached the field, and snatched 
from him the half gotten victory. 

The overthrow was decisive and final. The last 
Hungarian army was annihilated, and its fragments 
were scattered in flight and dismay. 

Gorgey's three days in Grosswardein were the 
fitting conclusion of his whole campaign. He could 
have reached Arad on the 7th, Temesvar on the 

8th, rested his troops on the 9th, and with Bern 

t 



262 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

have crushed the Austrian main army at a blow on 
the 10th. He would have held the option of meeting 
the Russians, or of retreating on an open road to the 
south for time and reinforcements. 

On the night of the 11th when all was over, Kos- 
suth, under the moral and physical coercion of the 
generals and representatives assembled at Arad, laid 
down his power which treachery had rendered 
useless, and placed his life in the keeping of the hos- 
pitable Sultan, that he might dedicate its future to 
his country. Gorgey held the only army on foot and 
between Arad and the enemy. He was entitled to 
the fruits of his villany. He assumed the dignity of 
Dictator for a day — that his country might fall by a 
worthy hand. 

Gorgey at Villagos attained the height of his am- 
bition — an immortality of infamy. 

The fourth battle of light and darkness was closed 
on the plains of Hungary. 

Her fall was as that of the apocalyptic star which 
turned the third part of the waters to wormwood — 
of which many died because they were bitter. — 

Four times in less than thirty years have four 
nations of Europe risen after free institutions, wrested 
them from their rulers, and maintained them intact 
against their assaults — and as many times have those 
nations been prostrated at the feet of their tyrants, 
by foreign military power, inspired by satanic hate 
of liberty, and commissioned by the Holy Alliance 
for its extinction. In every instance the voice of the 
only two free nations of Europe has been silent. 
Their sword has clung to its scabbard. They have 



HUNGARY. 263 

hugged the delusive phantom of selfish security, and 
closed their eyes and ears to the inevitable day when 
alone they must defy or obey the powers whose inso- 
lence they failed to punish. That day is at hand. 

The overthrow of Hungary closed the revolu- 
tionary era of 1848. 

It left Nicholas the arbiter of Europe. Under his 
protectorate the petty princes of Germany resumed 
the airs and vexations of irresponsible power. Be- 
neath the blight of his frown the visions of German 
Union faded away. Austria, strong in his support, 
and with Hungary at her feet, disdainfully rejected 
the federal constitution proposed by Prussia and 
Saxony on the 30th of May 1849. 

The King of Prussia, as ambitious as weak, sum- 
moned Germany to Erfurt on the 20th of March 
1850, to consult for a constitution, which his horror 
of revolutionary affinities and his fear of separation 
from his royal cousins caused him to reject when ten- 
dered by the people with the assurances of their 
support. But any union other than that of the 
Princes stood condemned as savoring of that (( ma- 
terial unity" which Russia had denounced. Austria 
neither desired nor dared to think otherwise than 
Russia. Her power was at stake in any change of 
the Diet and its plenum, where her influence was 
supreme. Secure of aid from abroad, and fearing no 
serious opposition at home from Princes whose 
power she was protecting with her own against the 
people, their common foe, Austria forgot or disre- 
garded the events of the last three years, her active 
participation in the creation of a central power, her 



264 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

recognition of its legitimate title to the attributes of 
an established government, and the incompatibility of 
those facts with the continued existence of the con- 
federation of 1815. She wanted a power to oppose 
and if possible to crush the dangerous innovations, and 
the revolutionary agitations of Prussia. She was not 
sure of consent, if the Princes were consulted ; but 
she was sure of acquiescence, if she assumed the 
responsibility of summoning the Diet into renewed 
existence. All Germany was startled by the resump- 
tion of her vacant presidency, the call of the Diet of 
the confederation to Frankfort, and the demand for 
its recognition by the foreign diplomatists. 

Germany seemed threatened by two governments. 
Energy and resolution decided the supremacy. The 
Erfurt Assembly yielded to the Frankfort Diet — be- 
cause Austria in arms audaciously supported the 
usurpations of the one, while Prussia in defence of 
the other, weakly entangled herself in the meshes of 
a technical legality, and met aggression only by argu- 
ment. The issue was made and decided, under the 
dictatorial mediation of Russia, in the affairs of Hesse 
Cassel. 

A free constitution, the offspring of 1830, sheltered 
Hesse Cassel from the storm of 1848. Her Elector 
repaid his people by invading their rights in the reac- 
tionary period of 1850. Their constitution required, 
as preliminary to a vote of money, a ministerial 
budget in detail, specifying the purposes to which 
the money was applicable. This is indispensable to 
the existence of ministerial responsibility. The 
Elector had resolved on freeing himself from that 



HUNGARY. 265 

control. His minister demanded the taxes without a 
budget. The Diet refused them — and was dissolved. 
The taxes were decreed by the Elector — and payment 
refused by the people. The officers would not collect 
them, the troops would not enforce obedience. Hay- 
nau, red with Hungarian butchery., was invested with 
the command as a terror to well doers. The officers 
refused obedience and threw up their commissions — 
which their subalterns disdained to accept. In his 
extremity the Elector appealed to Austria. The 
refusal of taxes was forbidden by the construction 
put on the 25th and 26th articles of the Final Act 
of Vienna in 1832: and Austria eagerly seized at so 
opportune an occasion of enforcing the articles of the 
confederation, which she wished to re-instate, while 
she dealt a blow at a free constitution for which the 
people would fight. Russia played the mediator in 
this domestic quarrel, and Austria and Prussia were 
invited to Warsaw, to settle the internal affairs of the 
German government. 

The invitation itself was of sinister significance. 
The government of Germany had passed north of 
the Vistula, and the conspiracy against the last relic 
of her freedom was conducted where the ruin of 
Poland had been consummated, and that of Hungary 
plotted. It was as if the constitution of the United 
States were debated at Quebec, under the mediation 
of England ! ! 

Terms of arrangement were ostensibly mediated. 
Yet the conference was followed by the occupation 
of the Electorate by the armies of Austria and Ba- 
34 



266 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

varia in the name of the confederation ; and martial 
law substituted the sword for the constitution. 

Even the patience of Prussia was outraged. Her 
population armed and rose en masse at the summons 
of the King ; and Austria yielded to his armed de- 
mands the " free conferences" of Dresden. 

They resulted in nothing but the submission of 
Prussia, the continued occupation of Hesse Cassel, 
and the march of an Austrian corps to Hamburg. 
Germany lay at the feet of Austria — the slave of the 
Czar, and Prussia stood silent, irresolute, dangling 
her military ornaments, and clattering her useless 
sword. 

Such is the result of the revolution in Germany. 

Despotism crossed the Rhine at the election of 
Louis Napoleon to the presidency of France. His 
ambitious eye was fixed on the memories of the Em- 
pire. He longed for arbitrary power; and turned in 
reverence to the Mecca of despotism. He gave 
earnest of sincerity by crushing the infant freedom of 
Rome beneath the spiritual and temporal omnipotence 
of the Pope. Two short years have fled, and now the 
constitution of France is a thing of the past. Abso- 
lute power, seized by the sword, covered by the sanc- 
tion of a sham election, and cheered by the assur- 
ances of Russian support as it was usurped by its 
example, now chills the banks of the Seine by its 
gloomy shade. The example of the Czar supports 
the position, and inspires the policy of Louis Napo- 
leon. Wherever a hand is lifted against liberty, there 
is the Czar to support, to aid, to encourage, to in- 
spire, prodigal of his resources in the crusade on 



HUNGARY. 267 

freedom, and defending his frontiers from the ap- 
proach of danger by meeting and repelling it far 
from his threshold. 

But Louis Napoleon cannot stand still. He must 
advance or fall. His equilibrium can only be pre- 
served by action. Russia insists on the treaties of 
1815, and that excludes the Rhine from his ambition. 
But England is hateful because powerful, and dan- 
gerous because free. To cripple her resources would 
be the most acceptable sacrifice the neophyte could 
lay on the altars of the northern Moloch. Rumor 
points to that quarter : the note of preparation seems 
to confess the reality of the danger; and we do not 
hear that the treaties of 1815 are invoked in the 
north for her protection. — 

Three months have elapsed since the above was 
written — and already the northern powers are pre- 
paring to reduce France to conformity with their 
despotic theories of the divine and hereditary right. 

Louis Napoleon was welcome when he arose — to 
stay the plague. He was greeted with favor when 
he forced the bit between the teeth of rampant 
France, and prevented her from dashing to atoms 
their tottering empires — while they struggled with 
the revolutionary maniacs at home. 

But height has recalled high thoughts — security 
has banished fear — and the useful tool may now be 
treated as a dangerous weapon. Safely enthroned 
amid the ruins of the suppressed revolution, they 
feel strong enough to renew the alliance for the res- 
toration of monarchy in France. 



268 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

]f the communication in the London Times may 
be relied on for substantial accuracy, the conde- 
scending visit of Nicholas early in 1852 to Vienna 
and Berlin was no idle courtesy. It was a political 
mission of union, conciliation, preparation, and con- 
ference. The diplomatic notes interchanged between 
the courts related directly and ostensibly to the per- 
sonal ambition of Louis Napoleon ; but the principles 
and purposes avowed or foreshadowed plainly im- 
port a renewal of the Holy Alliance in spirit and in 
substance for the restoration of absolute monarchy in 
France — leaving the time and mode to be settled by 
the exigencies of the future. 

The northern powers assume the right to dictate 
or to declare the public law of Europe : and in their 
diplomatic notes, Europe and the despotic powers 
are convertible terms. 

They confess and recognize the fact that Louis Na- 
poleon is possessed of supreme power — but they hint 
that it involves a violation of the treaties of 1814 and 
1815. They contemplate the possibility of his 
assumption of the Imperial dignity, and declare in 
advance how it will be received. Whether volunta- 
rily assumed or conferred by the will of the French 
nation, in either case it is equally reprobated as an 
infraction of what they are pleased to term the funda- 
mental maxims of the public law of Europe. Their 
conduct may be different according to the circum- 
stances attending the change — but they deny the 
right of either the president or the nation to make 
the change. They assert for the first time in explicit 
terms, that they recognize no power to create a new 



HUNGARY. 269 

dynasty, hereditary and legitimate, ruling over the 
French people. They scoff at the caprices of uni- 
versal suffrage in a tone which might lead them to 
impeach the legitimacy of our presidential elections. 
They recognize no government as de jure unless it 
claim by inheritance ; and the only inheritable crown 
of France which they will recognize or accept is — 
that of the Bourbons. Its assumption by any one 
else is — an usurpation. 

They justly regard the assumption of the Imperial 
title by Louis Napoleon for life as merely a verbal 
change: but to claim it by inheritance from his 
uncle would be a grave usurpation. That would be 
an assertion of a right which they would feel called 
on to resist and resent — for it would involve the in- 
tegrity of their central principle — the assertion of a 
fountain of rightful sovereignty elsewhere than in 
the breast of a legitimate and anointed ruler. 

All other authority they treat as temporary — as 
passing and exceptional in its nature — to be re- 
spected or expelled according to circumstances — but 
never for a moment as clothed with the incommuni- 
cable attributes of heaven-descended sovereignty. 
They liken it to the authority of Cromwell — as if his 
title was not as good as that of the tyrant he ex- 
pelled. They even have the impudence to class it 
with that of Napoleon — their master and scourge — 
as if they had never bent the knee before his legiti- 
mate might. They venture to assimilate it to the 
authority of the kings of Poland — as if centuries of 
elective dignity consecrated by the national devotion 
could confer no sanctity. Or did they mean to shelter 



270 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

their bloody extermination of that magnificent realm 
under their modern principles — that an elective 
crown is only tolerated till the advent of the first 
armed usurper who conquers in the name of absolute 
and hereditary right? 

The principles therefore of these recent confer- 
ences plainly indicate that the northern powers regard 
the rule of Louis Napoleon as illegal in its origin — 
an infraction of the treaties of 1815 — outlawed by 
the common law of Europe — and liable without any 
iniquity to be swept away at the pleasure and by the 
arms of the despotic powers. 

That if they tolerate the continuance of his au- 
thority, it is only in the interest of peace, dependent 
on his civil and peaceful conduct, and accompanied 
by a protest that it is accepted as a fact, not regarded 
as a right. 

That the right appertains only to the line of the 
Bourbons — over whom even in exile the halo of 
the crown hovers till it shall descend and settle upon 
their triumphant heads. 

That they recognize the power of Louis Napoleon 
as only de facto — which means, they will seize the 
first and best opportunity to make it not a fact. 

That it may endure, under certain humiliating con- 
ditions, during his life, but not beyond; it must be a 
barren sceptre — no son of his succeeding : but while 
a dark silence rests on what shall follow in his room, 
that silence is pregnant with meaning. 

If Louis Napoleon, though proclaimed Emperor 
by the unanimous voice of France, will yet be allowed 
to hold only a temporary authority not transmis- 



HUNGARY. 271 

sible — then at his death — or sooner, if he violate the 
limits imposed on his ambition — some other authority 
is to fill his place vacated by death or by armed ex- 
pulsion. The northern powers have declared that 
the crown of France appertains of right perpetually 
and exclusively to the Bourbons — surviving every 
change — undying in the midst of murderous revolu- 
tions — and calmly waiting the passing away of every 
temporary revolutionary possessor of their legitimate 
and indefeasible sovereignty. 

They therefore mean that the Bourbons shall 
again — sooner or later — by peaceful or by forcible 
means — by armed interventions or by the capricious 
nature of universal suffrage — so soon as it may be 
convenient and at the death of Louis Napoleon at 
the farthest, remount the throne of the restoration 
and link France once more to the car of despotism. 

The Bourbon princes of either branch look for 
this mighty deliverance — are burying their domestic 
feuds which the usurpation of 1830 engendered — 
and preparing to cross once more the French frontier 
at the head of an army of deliverance. The heir of 
the elder branch now counts his partizans by the 
hundred thousand — insolently issues his bulletins to 
regulate their conduct and marshal their forces — 
interdicting the oath of office to the usurping presi- 
dent — and pointing to the bright day of their 
approaching advent. 

Whether this bold iniquity shall succeed or fail — 
rests with God. Louis Napoleon can utter no voice 
of complaint. But France will speak in tones not 
easily to be forgotten. 



272 THE REVOLT OF EUROPE. 

I only mark the event as proof of the consistent 
assertion by the despotic powers of the universality 
of their principles, of their deadly hostility to every 
form of national sovereignty — of their deep convic- 
tion that the principle must be extingushed as their 
only safety. — 

No man can tell what a day may bring forth. It 
behooves wise men not to shut their eyes to disagree- 
able truths, nor to put far from them a danger which 
may be at the door. Wisdom demands that we of 
this western world anxiously inquire the import of 
these startling events of our day, which outstrip the 
calculations of political sagacity, and heap up in weeks 
the events of a century — all bearing in one direction, 
inspired by one spirit and backed by powers which 
act as one man — the powers of despotism banded and 
sworn for the ruin of liberty. 

If Russia grasp the dictatorship of Europe she 
must wield her power for the overthrow of this Re- 
public. The law of necessity will compel her : and 
the hatred and the fear of freedom will make it a 
grateful task. 

What then is the position of Russia and of her allied 
despots in the affairs of Europe — is the question it 
behooves us gravely to consider. Let us not shrink 
from the investigation — nor refuse to accept the con- 
clusion which reason and history may force on our 
conviction. 



SECTION VI. 



THE DICTATORSHIP OF RUSSIA 
IN EUROPE. 



35 



THE DICTATORSHIP OF RUSSIA 
IN EUROPE. 



The revolution of 1848 has recoiled with disastrous 
ruin on the cause of human freedom. It lies crushed 
beneath the fragments created by its own explosion. 

The result of that stupendous outburst is now 
before us, real, palpable, complete. The victors 
have secured their footing — and already look for the 
signal of a new onset. 

What that result is, who have gained by it, against 
whom is the power of the victors directed, are mo- 
mentous inquiries for the free people of the world. 

I insist — 

That the issue of that eventful struggle has been 
to upset the balance of power in Europe in favor of 
Russia : 

That it has decisively overthrown the cause of 
popular liberty, and driven for their security all the 
despotic powers of Europe under the protectorate 
of Russia : 

That this union in her hands of preponderating 
power, and of the recognized lead of the despotic 



276 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

powers in the war of freedom has inaugurated the 
Dictatorship of Russia in Europe : 

That this power must from necessity, on principle, 
and by inclination, be devoted to the ruin of all 
free governments: that it is absolutely inconsistent 
with the existence of the English monarchy and the 
American Republic as free popular representative 
governments : and that they will be compelled sooner 
or later to defend by force of arms their freedom and 
independence against the intrigues, the diplomacy, 
the legislation, the hostilities of the despotic powers 
of Europe : 

That it is, therefore, the part of wisdom to be pre- 
pared for the advent of the inevitable day, and ready 
to seize the first favorable conjuncture to strike in 
common the first blow, and so to strike that it may 
be the last : 

That such a course is the dictate of sound policy — 
the policy followed by our foes and the cause of their 
present triumph : 

That this is the policy of President Washington — 
illustrated by his conduct, and consecrated by his 
parting address — adopted by President Monroe — 
re-affirmed by President Adams — reiterated by Presi- 
dent Polk — the traditional policy and the only safe 
policy of this Republic: 

That the question we have to decide is — not 
whether we will live in peace and repose, or gra- 
tuitously go on a crusade for liberty throughout the 
world, but — the absolute certainty of a contest with 
the combined powers of despotism being apparent — 
shall we wait till those powers, having utterly rooted 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 277 

out free governments from Europe, shall turn their 
might for our destruction, alone and without allies; — 
or shall we now seize the first opportunity of a deci- 
sive outbreak in Europe to aid the cause of freedom 
with arms and money, fight our battle by the armies of 
European revolutionists on the field of Europe, and 
by the aid of our allies for ever settle the question 
between freedom and despotism. 

The only alternatives are war, in Europe, now, 
with allies — and war hereafter, on our own soil, 
without allies. — 

Thrice since the days of Charlemagne has Europe 
been threatened with universal empire: — but never 
has the danger been so immediate, so threatening, so 
irresistible as now. 

Charles V. united beneath his massive sceptre 
Spain and Italy and Germany and the Netherlands, 
and supported his mighty armies from the gold and 
the commerce of the colonies of the Eastern and the 
Western Indies. England and France alone existed 
to oppose him. But the reformation divided his 
people, and raised foes of his household, and opened 
the door to foreign intervention which was used with 
decisive effect. His death divided his empire. The 
wars of the reformation impaired the unity of power 
in the hands of his successors. After the death of 
Philip II. the cloud melted away from the sky of 
Europe and men breathed more freely. The great 
war of opinion in matters of religion in Germany, 
aided by the arms of France and England, rescued 
the liberties of Europe from the fate of those of Cas- 
tile. The spirit of bigotry and the wasting hand of 



278 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

despotism exhausted the strength of the empire of 
Spain. At the death of Charles IV. it had been 
deprived of some of its fairest provinces. What re- 
mained was lethargic, spiritless, dead in political 
power, a hereditas jacens for the first or the strongest 
comer. One danger had departed. Another was at 
hand. 

France and the fortune of Louis XIV. filled the 
haughty place of Spain. The Spanish dominions, 
still majestic though in ruins, were bequeathed by 
their childless monarch to the grandson of Louis. 
This was to bestow them on him. His ambition 
was armed • with the double power of the French 
and the Spanish monarchy. He swayed the sceptre 
over France and Spain and the Netherlands and the 
two Sicilies and the Milanese. Powerless in the 
imbecil hands of Charles, these vast dominions in the 
energetic control of Louis and supported by the 
genius and military science of France — if once con- 
solidated — made an end of the independence of 
Europe. 

The courage and far-sighted statesmanship of Wil- 
liam of Orange united the arms of England, Holland, 
and Germany, to shatter this stupendous but ill-com- 
pacted empire, ere it should be too late. He died — 
and left the execution of his plans to Marlborough, 
who vindicated on the field of battle the indepen- 
dence of Europe. The second danger fled. 

Napoleon united in his grasp the scattered energies 
of the revolution and turned its madness into the 
docile minister of his ambition. He dragged at his 
chariot wheels the monarchs of continental Europe. 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 279 

He dictated the law from the Baltic to the Euxine. 
He assembled in stupendous masses the whole mili- 
tary power of western Europe for the overthrow of 
the colossal empire of the north. But his power had 
no deep foundations. It rested on opinion. It van- 
ished with its change. England and Russia alone 
bade him defiance: but it was only when the enthu- 
siasm of Germany and Austria rose on his retreating 
armies that Europe was free. For the government of 
a conqueror is necessarily that of a despot. Military 
power replaces the will of the people. Freedom 
and law can have no sure abiding place. The people 
rose at the call of their kings — because national inde- 
pendence is indispensable to national liberty. Napo- 
leon fell — his foes sat in his seat. Europe was deliv- 
ered from the hands of one, to those of many tyrants. 
The third danger passed. 

Yet it did not pass without dragging us into a war 
for our independence and our neutral rights. That 
war would have been waged ten years before, but for 
our feebleness. The provocations, the insults, the 
injuries existed, accumulated, were repeated during 
long years — till strength was substituted for endur- 
ance; and we entered the lists of armed nations be- 
cause the two tyrannies, which divided and contended 
for the mastery of Europe, with impartial hate de- 
predated on our commerce under the decrees of Ber- 
lin and Milan and the Orders in Council, and invaded 
the security of our citizens under the assumed right 
of search for absconding sailors. 

The fourth peril now exists. It is greater and 
more grievous than the others, and has attained 



280 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

what they only threatened to attain. Russia at this 
moment dictates the law to Europe from the Ural to 
the Bay of Biscay. 

Her power is more permanent and stable in its 
foundations than that of either of the preceding aspi- 
rants for universal dominion. 

It is not composed — like that of Charles V. — of 
divers discordant states united only by the crown he 
wore. It is one great central empire, compact in 
shape, vast in dimensions, inexhaustible in resources, 
moving as one man at the word of its master. His 
will is hampered by no feudal privileges. His orders 
are disputed by no proud and powerful vassals. No 
national immunities withdraw the resources of his 
people from his reach. No Cortes, deeply seated 
in the national affections and interwoven with the 
history of the people, bids him defiance in his usur- 
pations, and summons him to a civil war ere he can 
dispose of his arms for foreign aggression. No reli- 
gious dispute rouses the stubbornness of conscientious 
resistance; but the religious zeal of his people con- 
spires with his ambition and with the expansive ten- 
dencies of his empire. The ideas of human liberty 
and popular power are to this age what those of con- 
science and faith were to that of Charles V. But 
armed and organized governments, fired with devo- 
tion for the cause of the reformation, met Charles on 
many a field; when inactive, their arms lay ready 
to repel aggression; and the consciousness of their 
power compelled the respectful consideration of the 
Emperor and his bigots. His own vassals were 
divided against him, and France and England lent 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 281 

them countenance and "material aid." Nicholas is 
troubled by no internal dissensions on liberal ideas. 
His people are far behind that point — quiescent in 
the faith of their fathers, and glorying in their Czar 
as the vicegerent of God, the father of all his people. 
Without, all governments are on his side. He is 
their protector against their domestic foes. By his 
arms alone can the petty tyrants of Europe maintain 
their tottering thrones. He is the head and leader 
of the conspiracy of princes against the people. 
The Emperor of Austria, the rabble of German 
princes, the besotted and foresworn King of Naples, 
the trembling Pope, the Austrian tools of Tuscany and 
the Italian principalities, are one and all his slaves, 
pensioners on his bounty, eager to do his bidding, 
covetous of his favors, absolutely dependent on his 
power. Through them he rules Europe. Without 
him they are nothing. Their thrones are held by no 
tenure but obedience to his dictation: for his aid 
would be withdrawn from the refractory, and the 
people can, deal with their domestic tyrants when 
freed from the weight of Russian arms. The only 
issue in Europe now is freedom or slavery. On that 
question all the princes of Europe are of one mind 
and of one heart. They make common cause, have 
a common purse, swear by and invoke the same devil, 
and ply with rival skill his borrowed flames. 

The Czar is relatively to his opponents more 
powerful than Louis XIV. in all the might of the 
Spanish monarchy. He was forced to guide discor- 
dant kingdoms under the forms of domestic rule. 
They were jealous of foreign domination. His power 
36 * f 



282 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

was not consolidated ere it was shattered by the coal- 
ition. It had no central idea, rested on no tradition, 
was inspired by no grand purpose. It was the idol of 
his ambition, the monument of his egotism. Devoid 
of all hold in the affections of the people whom the 
will of a dotard delivered to the rule of a boy, his 
vast dominions were a lifeless corps over which 
heroes contended, while it was careless and uncon- 
scious of the maddening conflict. A few years of 
grace and respite would have made a difference. 
But William was too prompt to shape the weapon, 
and Marlborough too hasty to ply it. 

The Russian dictatorship is more absolute, more 
powerful, more dangerous than that of Napoleon, 
when all Europe followed his eagles to Moscow. 
His followers were his vassals, outraged at his upstart 
domination, and driven like eastern slaves to the 
battle by the terrors of threatened castigation. The 
heart of neither kings nor people was in it. They 
moved like automata at his bidding. They covered 
his flanks, kept open his communications, and formed 
corps of reserve. His power for action centred in 
the troops of France. The first check chilled the 
devotion of his allies or revealed their discontent. 
The first retreat loosed the bands of authority, re- 
leased the struggling and reluctant vassals from their 
restraints, and arrayed them in open hostility against 
the standard they had followed. Nicholas has the 
absolute control of his own people and the absolute 
devotion of his vassal crowns. Before him every 
head is bowed low — for by him alone are they deco- 
rated with a crown and tolerated on a throne. 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 283 

Without him they are nothing. They are therefore 
the slaves of his will. There is no fear of defection. 
Adversity will only strengthen the bonds. Defeat 
will only make protection more necessary, and union 
more indispensable for the common cause. The 
kings and nations whom Napoleon hurled on Alex- 
ander reluctantly, sluggishly, and against their will, 
Nicholas now arrays as with a magician's wand in 
the cause of human slavery. Napoleon's fall was 
involved in the very nature of his empire. It rested 
on his military genius — but its only object was his 
personal aggrandizement. To that the independence 
of his neighbors was unhesitatingly sacrificed. Kings 
and people were alike interested in its overthrow. 
Kings could not brook the rank and humiliations of 
Viceroys. The people felt that freedom was impos- 
sible without independence. Liberty must find its 
security in the responsibility of the domestic gov- 
ernment to the people of the state. Their rulers 
were beyond their control so long as they were co- 
erced by the fear or supported by the countenance of 
a foreign power. Kings became agitators in favor 
of freedom, that they might break a galling yoke. 
Their people were partly deceived by their pro- 
mises, partly conscious of the necessity of national 
independence to domestic liberty. They joined 
against the common oppressor, and adjourned the 
question between themselves and their rulers to a 
more convenient season. J\Tow } large masses of every 
nation support the governments. They are sur- 
rounded with highly organized armies, officered with 
a view to revolutionary disturbances. All the powers 



284 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

of government are sedulously devoted to the great 
cause of kings, and the leader of that cause is the 
Czar. 

Napoleon was the soldier of a revolution which 
he betrayed j the champion of a liberty he chained. 
The powers by which he rose were his fiercest foes. 
The cause in which he fleshed his maiden sword 
was the victim of his success, and its partisans shed 
no tears at his fall. Nicholas reigns with quiet un- 
questioned accepted authority over a docile people. 
His title is hereditary and unquestioned. His pur- 
poses are those of national aggrandizement. His 
people associate themselves to his glories. His au- 
thority is looked on as divine throughout the great 
majority of his people, and the disquieted provinces 
of Poland are held in obedience by the immovable 
mass of the empire. 

The centre and body of the empire of Napoleon 
was vulnerable at every point. Spain and Germany 
and Italy and the ocean surrounded it. His power 
was divided in his assaults by the necessity of de- 
fence. His rear was always exposed, and while con- 
tending with the allied arms on the German frontier, 
Wellington penetrated his territory from south to 
north, and only closed his career on the field of Wa- 
terloo. 

The empire of Russia occupies the northern and 
eastern extremities of Europe. Eternal snow and 
ice are the unassailable bulwarks of its rear. Its 
eastern flank skirts far and wide into the dim confines 
of Asia — free from the chances of assault, and pro- 
lific in the materials for the best cavalry in the world. 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 285 

Its vast plains slope to the south, and tend to precipi- 
tate the mass of the empire on the fated walls of 
Constantinople. On the west alone is it assailable, 
and there only during three months of the year. 
Retreat can hide disaster behind inaccessible snows 
till the favorable moment summons new armies to 
activity. They march to soft and sunny climes, 
allured by the splendors of art and the luxuries of 
civilization, where no month can numb their frames 
enured to the ices of the pole, and the campaign and 
the year are conterminous. This colossal and invul- 
nerable power Napoleon well declared the "Antaeus 
of the fable which cannot be overcome but by seizing 
it by the middle and stifling it in the arms." "But 
where,'' he asked after his own melancholy failure — 
" is the Hercules to be found who will attempt such 
an enterprise. Show me an Emperor of Russia, 
brave, able, and impetuous, in a word a Czar worthy 
of his situation, and Europe is at his feet. He may 
begin his operations at the distance of only one hun- 
dred leagues from the two capitals of Vienna and 
Berlin, the sovereigns of which are the only obstacles 
he has to apprehend. He gains the one by seduction, 
subdues the other by force, and he is soon in the midst 
of the lesser princes of Germany, most of whom are 
his relations or dependants. A few words on liber- 
ation and independence will set Italy on fire. As- 
suredly in such a situation I should arrive at Calais by 
fixed stages, and be the arbiter of the fete of Europe." 
A generation do not yet sleep in their graves — 
and the vision of the seer has become the fact of 
history. 



286 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

Alexander — "faux fin et foube comme un Grec 
du bas Empire" — is replaced by Nicholas — "brave, 
able, and impetuous," — but also calm, prudent, far- 
sighted, and inexorable. Events which properly 
used should have broken his power have permanently 
consolidated it. Europe is at his feet. Those whom 
Napoleon contemplated as the enemies to be over- 
come are now the suppliants for his favor. He now 
may begin his operation — not at only one hundred 
leagues from the two capitals of Vienna and Berlin — 
but at the Rhine. Those sovereigns, the only obsta- 
cles to be feared, are his accomplices or his slaves. 
The Emperor of Austria owes him the rescue, the 
preservation, the possession of his crown — twice lost 
in the Hungarian war. Without the aid of Russia 
he falls to-morrow. Russian aid was invoked to 
conquer Hungary. Russian troops now again are 
invoked to keep down the rebellious population, and 
the plains and fortresses of Hungary have been gar- 
risoned by the Czar at the humble request of the 
Austrian Emperor. The Empire of Austria is not 
only out of the way of Russian conquest — it is the 
dependant of the Czar. Its territory is the basis of 
his operations. Its resources are at his disposal. Its 
Emperor rules by his permission, and is little better 
than his vicegerent. He is a willing slave, imbued 
with the principles and devoted to the cause of des- 
potic power, and cheerfully aiding in the great cru- 
sade against liberty. 

Prussia, the other obstacle, has ceased to be a 
stumbling block. The King has repented him of his 
imperial dreams and popular ambition. He has failed 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 287 

in energy for a great game, and has sunk to a second 
rate place. He no longer leads Germany whose 
sceptre he flung away and whose people he disap- 
pointed, disgusted, and betrayed. He stands before 
them in confessed impotency, bearded on his frontiers 
by Austrian arms, driven from his great scheme of 
German regeneration within the meshes of Austrian 
intrigue and beneath the Diet of the treaties of Vi- 
enna. He has danced attendance on the Czar and the 
Emperor at Warsaw, to debate the internal affairs of 
Germany and settle by the interested mediation of 
Russia her government on its narrow and tottering 
base. He has allowed the only free constitution of 
Germany to be crushed by Austria at his very door. 
He has compelled his troops to retire before the ad- 
vancing Austrians, and to allow Hamburg and the 
north of Germany to be occupied, brow-beaten, and 
insulted in the name of the abandoned and fallen 
Diet. The capital of Germany is at St. Petersburg. 
The usurpation of Louis Napoleon has stricken 
from the map of Europe the only free power capable 
of bidding defiance to Russia. His policy from his 
election has been reactionary. His feelings are 
with the counter-revolutionists. He held the fiery 
spirit of the French in check till despotism had 
won decisive triumphs. He discountenanced and 
repressed every sign of sympathy. He signalized 
under false pretexts his devotion to the cause of 
despots by assailing the Roman republic and crush- 
ing its infant freedom. He calmly waited the day 
of factious violence to merge dissensions in his abso- 
lute power, confident of impunity in the midst of 



288 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

factions too hostile to each other to unite for his 
overthrow, and singly not a match for his partisans 
backed by the arms and power of the government. 
His usurpation has thus far been successful. It has 
stricken France from the list of free governments. 
It has ranged her in the ranks of despotisms. With 
them only can Louis Napoleon sympathize — from 
them alone can he hope for support — and by them 
alone can he hope to maintain his usurpation. With 
his usurpation end for the present the hopes of 
European freedom. The Kings of the north were 
clamorous with exultation and joy. Austria and 
Russia hastened to greet the converted revolutionist 
in the cause of royalty. German tyrants breathed 
freely, when relieved from the frown of French 
democracy at their unrighteous deeds. Prompt 
acknowledgments met his accession to the holy cause. 
Secret assurances of aid and comfort must have 
encouraged his nascent treason. By this usurpation 
France changed sides on the day of battle. Whether 
the usurper pursue a subservient or an independent 
policy the weight of France is lost to the liberal 
cause. He cannot encourage the spirit of the revo- 
lution without sounding the signal for his overthrow. 
He may be inclined to defy the schemes of Russian 
ambition; but he cannot with safety to himself attack 
the foundation of her power. That rests on her 
sole ability to repress the revolution and to maintain 
the princes on their thrones. Louis Napoleon will 
hardly venture to appeal to the people of Germany 
and Italy while oppressing those of France. He will 
scarcely speak of constitutions and popular guaran- 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 289 

tees, while yet smoking with the heat of his contest 
with both. His private interest to maintain his 
power is greater than his public interest to preserve 
the dignity of France. His position is not a little 
like that of Louis Philippe ; and similar causes may 
induce him to stifle the voice of France in the 
affairs of Europe. 

He would doubtless prefer an independent and 
a brilliant policy — one which should gratify the pride 
of France and decorate his own name with the laurels 
of high deeds. But the first question is — the pre- 
servation of his power; and that rests on the sup- 
pression of the spirit of revolution and the extinction 
of the idea of free government. The friendship of 
Russia is the best security for the success of that 
effort : and such aid is worth many sacrifices of dig- 
nity and of national benefits. His sympathies are 
on that side; and his interests seem to run in the 
same channels. It is scarcely possible for any war 
against Russia not to assume the shape of a revolu- 
tionary appeal to the people against their rulers. 
They are all in the interest of Russia : and France 
would scarcely dare the contest without allies. She 
must therefore be still, or seek allies at the hands of 
the revolutionists : and that would ill comport with 
the position of Louis Napoleon as the tamer of the 
spirit of Jacobin France. An easier game would 
seem to be — a Russian alliance with a hostile aspect 
towards England, and based on such partitions of 
European and Turkish territory as the parties might 
be satisfied with. 
37 



290 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

A revolution in France must, therefore, precede 
any hopes of her aid to the cause of liberty ; and 
without her there is no power on the continent able 
to stay the march of Russia to universal empire. 

The Czar is not only the arbiter of Christian 
Europe — he is also at his pleasure the master of 
Mohammedan Europe. The last barrier between 
his eager hand and the glittering dome of St. Sophia 
has been swept away. 

The two great problems of European politics in 
the nineteenth century are — the fate of the Ottoman 
Empire and the fate of free principles. The events 
of the last three years have solved both in favor of 
Russia. 

The flood of Mohammedan conquest rolled at the 
two extremes of Europe to the foot of the Pyrenees 
and of the Carpathians. Before those mighty bar- 
riers were its proud waves staid. Ferdinand the 
Catholic drove them across the Straits of Gibraltar 
three centuries and a half ago. Nicholas would 
have driven them across the Bosphorus thirty years 
ago — but for the armed veto of united Europe. The 
Ottoman is still camped at Constantinople by favor of 
the dispute for the possession of his spoils. There 
was only one nation able at once to seize and to gov- 
ern the provinces of the Turk. But such an acces- 
sion to the power of Russia was too dangerous to be 
permitted; and England, France, and Austria were 
sharpsighted to spy out her insidious advances, and 
more than once united to forbid her progress. But 
the contest has been between jealous allies, distant 
from the scene and having discordant interests, 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 291 

uniting only for a negative object — and one despotic 
power on the scene of action, taking advantage of 
every emergency, with every thing to gain and out of 
reach of possible loss, retiring from every contest with 
some fragment of the prey, and each time leaving the 
victim more enfeebled and more defenceless. 

The Mohammedan power has reached its term of 
life and is now fading away. The only question is 
what shall fill its place. The mode of its removal is 
immaterial. It is already dead, and awaits those who 
shall carry it out and bury it. Its expulsion from 
Europe and Western Asia is natural, moral, and 
necessary. It is a tyranny of the fiercest character, 
compensated by no advanced civilization, and desti- 
tute of promise for the future. The civilization of 
which it was the representative has run its cycle of 
rise, perfection, and decline, and its naked stump now 
only cumbers the ground and excludes better occu- 
pants. It covers the earliest seats of Christianity 
and of civilization with the fragments of an infidel 
and a semi-barbarous empire. Of its population only 
one-third in the European provinces are Mohamme- 
dans, and only two-fifths of that in the Asiatic do- 
minions. The rest is almost wholly Christian, held 
in the most abject subjection, and ready at any mo- 
ment to receive with open arms their Christian 
brethren. The despotism of the Czar would be a 
mitigation of that of the Turk. The most fertile 
provinces of Europe would be regained to the arts 
of civilization and the faith of the Christian, and its 
desert places would blossom as the rose beneath the 
touch of modern energy and the breath of modern 



292 THE DICTATORSHIP OP 

improvement. The power which reposes in those 
delightful regions won them by the sword, but has 
not naturalized itself by taking root in the soil. Its 
continuance is an outrage on the faith and feelings of 
the vast majority of the people. It is fading away 
from the scene of its glory as did the Greek empire 
of Constantinople before the splendor of the ascend- 
ing crescent. It treads the path of the grave with 
the even step of fate — pushed onward by a power 
that looks like Providence, in its calm, steady, delib- 
erate, but ceaseless and fatal advance. 

The consistent policy of Russia has been met only 
by the vacillating schemes and the shifting expe- 
dients of her opponents; and the history of the world 
is one long comment on the fate of such a contest. 

The Greek revolution stripped the Turk of his 
most celebrated provinces, and set the fatal example 
of internal dissolution. 

The battle of Navarino in 1827 destroyed the Ot- 
toman fleet — for the benefit of Russia. 

Nicholas seized the moment of exhaustion in 1828 
to pick a quarrel. Debitsch forced the passes of the 
Balkan, scattered the Turkish armies, and Constanti- 
nople was exposed without a defender. His march 
was staid at Adrianople by the threat that France and 
England would cross his path ; and his master con- 
tented himself with the treaty of Adrianople in 1829, 
which surrendered the mouths of the Danube, opened 
the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, virtually severed 
Wallachia and Moldavia, and vested Russia with pre- 
texts for perpetual intermeddling, and a right to make 
war whenever it might be convenient. 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 293 

The genius of Mehemet Ali had gradually aug- 
mented his power in Egypt till he could defy his 
master, and was more than a match for the sluggish 
mass to which he was nominally subject. Egypt 
was lost to the Porte. 

Syria is the necessary outwork and dependent of 
•Egypt, and the Taurus the first barrier fit for the 
frontier of an empire. Mehemet Ali coveted that 
mountain rampart; and in 1831 his son marched to 
the conquest of Syria. Ibrahim captured Acre; and 
he followed up his success by scattering the armies 
of the Porte at Horns, at Beylan, at Kouiah, in rapid 
succession. In 1832 Constantinople was naked 
and trembling before his sword. Russian armies 
promptly responded to the Sultan's piteous cry for 
aid, crossed to the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, and 
interposed between the powerful vassal and the pow- 
erless lord. The treaty of Unkiar Skellessi formally 
inaugurated the Russian protectorate. The terrified 
and feeble Sultan secured the right of Russian aid ; 
and Nicholas knew that to ask protection was a con- 
fession of dependence, and cheerfully assumed the 
duty of guarding his future dominions against a more 
formidable occupant. Protection covered the in- 
sidious advances of the Macedonian, the Roman, the 
British empires; and Russia only availed herself of 
the traditional and customary forms of incipient 
conquest. 

Russia had rescued Constantinople ; but Syria still 
lay in the grasp of Mehemet Ali. 

In 1839 the Porte renewed its struggle for its lost 
province. The battle of Nezib stretched it again 



294 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

prostrate before Ibrahim. Again Russian arms were 
ready. Nothing but the sudden and brilliant descent 
of Napier and the English squadron on the coasts of 
Syria, and the threatened bombardment of Alex- 
andria, scared the rapacious Egyptian from his prey, 
and spared the Porte a second precedent of the dan- 
gerous presence of the Russians. 

Languid and exhausted, the Ottoman empire, un- 
able to stand erect even before domestic foes, lay at 
the mercy of European diplomacy and arms. The 
joint treaty of England, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, 
embodied the jealousy of the former powers, and se- 
cured their common intervention. It alone stood 
between Nicholas and his fated victim. He was not 
hasty or impatient. He used the treaty to break the 
alliance of England and France, — and secured by their 
division future impunity. Turkey was fallen from 
the list of powers. Her place was vacant — awaiting 
an occupant. There was only one power which 
could occupy it. That power, sure of the future, 
confident in the course of events, rich in the promises 
of time and accident, waived for a season the occu- 
pation of her inheritance. The blood of the princes 
of the Greek empire transmits to the Czar a spe- 
cious pretext of title, which has been nurtured into 
a national tradition, and confirmed by ancient pro- 
phecies. The religion of Russia is that of the majority 
of the population of the Turkish dominions. Their 
advance to the conquest of Constantinople would be 
a holy war to the Russians ; while the Christians of 
Turkey would greet their advent as a great deliver- 
ance. Superstition and policy, national tradition and 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 295 

hereditary ambition conspire to fix the destiny of 
Constantinople. The events of 1848 and 1849 have 
removed or lessened the obstacles which hitherto 
have postponed and impeded the accomplishment of 
those darling dreams ; and any day we may be called 
on to listen to the trumpet call of Christian Russia 
to a crusade for the extermination of the religion and 
the empire of Mahomet on the soil of Europe. 

What stands in the way of its speedy, easy, entire 
triumph ? 

Certainly not the most serious of the obstacles 
which have hitherto retarded it. That has been 
the opposition of united Europe. All the great 
powers have been on one side and against Russia, 
however diverse their peculiar interests might be. 
France may have been for a partition; Austria for 
the integrity of the Ottoman power; while England 
may have seen in its weakness the best security for 
her East India communications: yet all felt and 
acknowledged that the possession of the wide domain 
of the Turk and the port of Constantinople by Russia 
would destroy the balance of power in Europe for 
ever, place the fate of Asia in her hands, and subject 
the world to her dictatorship. They therefore tried 
every species of political combination and military 
protest to hinder the consummation of the hopes of 
the Czar. Austria was most deeply and directly in- 
terested of all. The Ottoman dominions form her 
southern border. Moldavia alone divides Russia 
from her eastern line. On the north from Cracow 
eastward Russia is her conterminous neighbor. To 
allow her to seize and appropriate the spoils of the 



296 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

Turk would be to permit Austria to be completely 
wrapped round by the coils of this constrictor. She 
would lie in the embrace of death. Metternich was, 
therefore, the most prompt, pertinacious, and uncom- 
promising enemy to Russian aggrandizement on the 
side of Turkey. He more than once lined the Hun- 
garian frontier with troops ready for action, and was 
willing to fling to the winds the hopes and blessings 
of the Holy Alliance, and bid defiance to its head, 
rather than submit to the inevitable fate which the 
conquest of Turkey involved. Austria, while an inde- 
pendent power, was, alone of all the great powers, 
directly interested in checking the Russian advance. 
Her independence, her power, her very existence 
were at stake. No scheme of partition could recon- 
cile her — for her discordant provinces were her 
greatest difficulty; and a part of the spoil would in- 
crease the difficulty more than it would add to her 
strength. 

But all this is now changed. Austria is held 
together by the weight of Russian power. Her pres- 
tige is lost among the powers. Her domestic diffi- 
culties are beyond her control. She was indebted to 
Nicholas for her existence as an empire. His arms 
still support its tottering fabric. The relation of 
equals in the Holy Alliance has been changed into 
that of protector and dependent. Nicholas is the 
master of the Austrian empire. Austria, therefore, 
will be no worse off with Turkey in the hands of 
Russia than she is now. Wallachia and Moldavia are 
now practically Russian provinces; and they line the 
greater portion of her Turkish frontier. Wallachia 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 297 

was, on the south, the basis of Russian military opera- 
tions against Hungary in the cause of the Emperor. 
It was found convenient to have that spirited nation 
compressed on all sides by the powerful protector of 
the Imperial feebleness. The Russian occupation of 
those provinces is now the greatest obstacle to a 
Hungarian rebellion. Such is the miserable exhaus- 
tion of Austria that her danger is her safety. She 
cannot, therefore, if she would, arrest the march of 
Nicholas to Constantinople. She has not. the will 
any more than the power to do it. Hungary and the 
Carpathians have ceased to be barriers : and Russian 
troops under Austrian leave can penetrate through 
them into every province of Turkey, divide her 
feeble forces, distract her defence by multitudinous 
attacks, and prostrate her at pleasure. But the diffi- 
culty has not for thirty years been of a military, but 
a diplomatic character. Russia was always able to 
crush the Turks ; European arms and diplomacy 
stood in the way. But only three powers were at 
once interested in the question and able to speak 
with authority. They were England, France, and 
Austria. All were equally threatened by Russian 
preponderance. Each had a separate and special 
interest. England must keep open her communica- 
tions with India over the Isthmus of Suez and by the 
Red Sea. Egypt must, therefore, be in the hands of 
a power dependent on England and not on Russia or 
any other strong power. France has always aspired 
to influence in Egypt, partly inspired by hostility to 
England, partly by her interest in her African pro- 
vinces, and the desire safely to extend them. She 
38 



298 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

has always longed to call the Mediterranean a French 
lake, and Russia would be a dangerous rival. Aus- 
tria shrunk from absorption in the spreading flood of 
Russian conquest. 

On Austria the brunt of the conflict must fall. 
England and France were too far off to operate either 
promptly or efficiently with bodies of troops ade- 
quate to the encounter of the Russian armies. The 
Egyptian expedition of Napoleon was as decisively 
overthrown as that to Russia. One to Constanti- 
nople would meet a more speedy and inevitable fate. 
Men of war might force the Dardanelles — but Sebas- 
topol is at the door. Russian fleets could meet them 
or anticipate them, and Russian armies could fortify 
those straights so as to make them impassable to any 
fleet. She could at less expense put tenfold greater 
masses of troops at any given point of the Turkish 
empire than France and England combined. The 
great majority of the population would be indifferent 
or on the side of Russia, and that alone would be 
decisive. 

The only power which could act with effect was 
Austria. She was nearer than Russia. Her military 
resources were on the flanks of the Russian opera- 
tions, and as they progressed they would be liable to 
have their communications cut off from the east of 
Hungary, and to be assailed in rear by Austria, while 
opposed in the front by Turkish armies, commanded 
by French or English officers, and supported by 
foreign troops. So long as Austria was an inde- 
pendent power, and chose to forbid the occupation of 
Turkey, it was impossible. 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 299 

But the events of 1848 and 1849 have made her 
dependent on Russia. Her territory is protected by- 
Russian troops, and would form the base of their 
operations against Turkey. She cannot forbid it — 
for the withdrawal of their aid would leave her at the 
mercy of the outraged and inflamed Hungarians, who 
stand ready to clutch their weapons at a moment's 
warning. Austria must acquiesce in whatever policy 
Nicholas may see fit to dictate, for her military 
strength always resided in Hungary. The genius, 
spirit and devotion of the Hungarians alone rescued 
the empire from dismemberment on more than one 
occasion ; and now the Hungarian is at once the bit- 
terest and the most dangerous enemy of that house 
which clung to him for protection in the hour of 
need, and repaid his services in treachery, slavery, 
and blood. When the Emperor invoked the power 
of Russia to crush the liberties of Hungary, he for 
ever alienated the people who alone could defend 
him. He could sink to no lower or more humiliating 
condition. From that day there was no possibility of 
arraying any force against Russia adequate to protect 
Constantinople from occupation at her pleasure. 

It is by no means certain that France, under her 
present usurper, would even strive to prevent it. 
Louis Napoleon is too ambitious of permanent 
alliance with the legitimate despotisms to incur the 
hostility of the leader of them. French vanity and 
ambition could be pacified by concessions in Egypt 
which would strengthen and extend the African 
empire. French hate would be the more grateful for 
an opportunity of cutting off the English communi- 



300 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

cation with India. The policy of Napoleon has be- 
come a national idea. Louis Napoleon could carry 
the nation with him in any arrangement which should 
deliver European and Asiatic Turkey to Russia and 
Austria in such proportions as the former might de- 
signate, while it secured to the French the African 
provinces of the Ottoman empire from Alexandria to 
Algiers. The quadruple treaty of 1840 foreshadowed 
such a partition of influence, if not of empire, be- 
tween England and Russia. But that treaty was a 
blow aimed at constitutional France and the English 
alliance. France under a despotic head would be 
entitled to very different consideration. Her ruler 
would strive to rouse the national ambition and fire 
the national hatred against England. Her eastern 
empire is her vulnerable point, and Russia and 
France would easily unite to humble a common and 
dangerous rival. The partition of the spoils of the 
Ottoman empire would cement their hate of England 
into an alliance for her ruin ; and the geographical 
position of Russia and of France indicates the pro- 
portions of the partition. 

Turkey in Europe is, therefore, under the existing 
relations of the European governments, at the mercy 
of Russia. What future and unforeseen contin- 
gencies may arise human ken knows not. We must 
base our calculations on the only elements of calcula- 
tion — the existing relations of the Powers on which 
the fate of Europe depends. On that basis, Euro- 
pean Turkey may be regarded as — a province of 
Russia. 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 3Q] 

If so — the time of occupation may be postponed 
for a while — but only that it may be easily and safely 
effected. 

The addition to the Russian Empire of the rich 
provinces of Turkey, stretching from the Euxine to 
the Adriatic, and from the borders of Hungary to 
the Bosphorus and the Egean — sparsely populated 
by ten millions of people, and capable of supporting 
thrice that number in affluence — embracing half the 
course of the Danube, whose mouths she now 
already holds, and along whose banks the peaceful 
and the warlike march of nations has always found 
their natural and easy entrance to western Europe — 
the power of Russia would be finally consolidated. 
Austria would be enclosed by her iron folds. She 
would be the neighbor of Italy. She would hold 
the Euxine as a Russian lake, and dispute with France 
the possession of the Mediterranean. She would 
have the control of the centre of European com- 
merce: and by her influence in Italy and Sicily, 
while consolidating the reign of despotism, she 
could bar the path of England to the east and cut 
off or harrass her commerce at her pleasure. Asia 
Minor, Syria, and Egypt would be at her control: 
and Suez would soon be a Russian or a French Gib- 
raltar. These are the inevitable results of the occu- 
pation of Turkey by Russia. They are involved in 
the relations of powers and of places, they flow from 
the political dynamics which must give the law to the 
consequences of the occupation. They are the re- 
sults of the most consistent of all logics — the logic of 
historic consequences. 



302 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

But if this be so — then, Europe is delivered over 
to the dictation of the Czar and his dependent 
empires. England stands isolated and alone — with 
nothing but her sturdy yeomanry and heroic tars 
between her and ruin. Her eastern empire depends 
on her European power, on her ability to open her 
communications across the isthmus of Suez, and on 
her ability to throw a greater military force into her 
distant possessions than Russia, by her intrigues and 
her arms can bring to bear on the vulnerable points 
of her expanded but ill consolidated dominion. The 
Russian eagle has already flown farther from St. Pe- 
tersburg than its resting place is from British India, 
and the Czar already murmurs of a treaty of Cal- 
cutta. 

The result therefore, seems to point to the isola- 
tion of England in Europe, and to reduce the ques- 
tion of her fate to a calculation of the chances of her 
being able to maintain herself at Suez and on the 
Euphrates alone, against the power of Russia and the 
states which are her vassals or confederates. 

On the continent the dictatorship of Russia has 
now been inaugurated. From St. Petersburg go 
forth the decrees which control the destinies of Eu- 
rope. The question of power and political aggran- 
dizement seems to have reached this solution. 

The other problem for solution in the nineteenth 
century is — the relation of the people to the sove- 
reignty. The conflict of free ideas against despotic 
rule ushered in the century, and for fifty years it has 
shaken Europe with the noise of battle. Whether 
power descended from the Eternal Throne on the 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 303 

anointed heads of kings, or emanated from the 
people, a trust for their benefit — whether the people 
were by Providence delivered into the hands of their 
rulers, bound to unquestioning obedience, or were 
vested by God with a right to dispose of their own 
destinies, and to dictate the law to those whom they 
set over their affairs — this has been the great question 
debated in the council and in the field, between kings 
and people during the first half of the nineteenth 
century. 

The American revolution first introduced the idea 
of liberty, as an absolute right of man, on the field of 
battle. France caught the inspiration, and her ex- 
ample and her arms propagated the enthusiasm of 
liberty from the Straits of Gibraltar to the Vistula. 
The triumph or defeat of this principle involves the 
total reconstruction of the states and politics of Eu- 
rope. It has therefore been the centre round which 
all events of moment have grouped themselves. 
They have been judged and estimated according to 
their bearing on this problem. The ambition of 
states and individuals has disguised itself in devotion 
or hostility to this principle, and men have sought to 
enlist the power of the opponents or the partisans of 
liberty for the purposes of vulgar ambition — as kings 
arrayed Protestants and Catholics in adverse ranks to 
decide under the name of a religious war the political 
empire of Europe. But the principle of liberty and 
popular power strikes by its very nature at the root 
of every authority claiming any other source than the 
popular will. Invoked as a tool, it soon becomes a 
chief actor on the scene. Rulers are therefore driven 



304 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

to choose between friendship and enmity. They 
must admit and act on its principles — or they must 
oppose and defeat its partisans — or they must submit 
to defeat and ruin in the inevitable encounter. Neu- 
trality is impossible — or it is ruin. 

Kings were long in discovering this necessity — and 
still longer in uniting to act on it consistently. But 
bitter experience has taught wisdom. The spirit of 
liberty has shone on many a field of battle, and tried 
the extremes of fortune. It has shaken thrones by 
its triumphs, and from defeat it has risen in defiance 
of death — like a spiritual essence incapable of decay, 
and stood a spectre frighting kings from their pro- 
priety at the banquet and on the couch. 

The apparition when last it rose spread ruin over 
Europe, and struck terror into the stoutest hearts of 
kings — and for a while it held undisputed mastery. 
But its foes recovered from their fright, resumed the 
fallen sword, and, in the absence of a leader fit for 
the crisis, smote and overthrew its scattered and 
disorganized power. It triumphed in every state 
over its domestic tyrants. In every state it was over- 
thrown by the intervention of foreign powers, and 
those foreign powers in the last resort found their 
ultimate reliance and support in Russia. To Russia 
it was the crisis of life or death, of ruin or of universal 
empire. The sword of Nicholas decided the contest. 
Every crown north of the Pyrenees is worn by virtue 
of his arms. Every government is in his interest, 
linked to his policy and empire by dependence, 
by gratitude, by hopes of safety, by the con- 
sciousness of feebleness if deserted. Every army 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 305 

and every government, France included, is now in 
the hands of despots and in the interest of despotism, 
leagued to keep down the spirit of liberty which they 
have overthrown: and the leader of the league is 
Nicholas. 

The fate of liberty has been that of the prince of 
the Genii, whom the fisherman ignorantly released 
from his vase. 

A rebellious and defkttt spirit, it had for centuries 
been oppressed by princes in the name and with the 
seal of God. 

France fished in troubled waters for means of 
annoying England. She found on these western 
shores in the English colonies, something as prom- 
ising in secret riches, as innocent of threatened dan- 
ger, as the fisherman's vase. She broke the seal — 
and forth streamed the smoke which spread over the 
heavens — and assumed the terrible form of the Spirit 
of Liberty — wearied with promising for centuries in 
vain, as the price of liberation, riches endless — the 
hidden treasures of the caves — the glories of princely 
power — and now, when freed by an accident, mad- 
dened with disappointment and despair, threatening 
death to its deliverer. For years it held the princes 
of Europe in mortal terror — till fraud supplied the 
place of might — and the spirit before which they 
trembled was coaxed, cajoled, and deceived into sub- 
mission to their power. It dissolved again into thin 
smoke — it laid aside its terrible form — it surrendered 
its arms to the hands of its deceiver — it voluntarily 
quieted the terrors it created by changing the form of 
armed defiance for that of peaceful and submissive 
39 



306 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

citizenship — trusting that its freedom would be re- 
stored. But the day of submission was the last of 
liberty, and the terrified princes hasted to place the 
seal of fate guarded by military power over the place 
of confinement of the terrific phantom. 

This is the present result of the great revolution 
of 1848. Europe has fallen back — pressed beneath 
the heel of its masters more heavily than before. 
The liberal cause has been decided definitively— for 
the present at least — in favor of despotism. 

It has been decided under such circumstances as 
forbid the hope' of any voluntary mitigation of the 
severity and exclusiveness of despotic rule. The 
terror was too imminent and too mortal for princes 
to forget it. The fashion of liberal ideas has proved 
too costly a luxury even for royal palaces; and it is 
prudently abandoned and forbidden. Liberty might 
before have been hoped for in some'moderate form 
of concession ; but royal souls can never forgive the 
arrogance of demanding as a right what they consid- 
ered a royal grace. To beard and defy them in such 
a cause was unpardonable : but how shall they wipe 
out the humiliating memory of flight and exile, con- 
cessions wrung from terror and safety bought with 
tears, the ungraceful sight of royal backs and tremb- 
ling knees, the deep and smarting wound to the pride 
of kingly independence compelled to seek safety by 
foreign aid, the pledges, the oaths, the perjuries, the 
treacheries which have exposed royalty to the hate 
as its cowardice did to the contempt of the people. 
These are the fruits of liberty to kings: they all 
unite in deprecating the agitation and stifling the 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 307 

discussion of topics so dangerous: and if they did 
not unite voluntarily, their dependence on Russia 
would compel submission. She demands as the price 
of protection the avoidance of exciting topics and of 
all encouragements to popular commotion. She will 
not tolerate the submitting of the prerogatives of the 
right divine to the impertinent curiosity and irrev- 
erent discussion of popular assemblies. Europe will 
be no more troubled with volunteer constitutions from 
royal hands — while Russia is the guarantor of des- 
potism. 

The revolution of 1848 has thus strengthened the 
power, and expanded the field of action of Russia; 
it has elevated her to the dictatorship of Europe in 
the great controversy of the age: and the perma- 
nence of that dictation is secured by the dependence 
of all the despotic powers of Europe on her arms 
for the compression and extermination of the revo- 
lutionary spirit. The first necessity of the prince is 
the existence of his power: the mode and extent of 
it are secondary considerations. It is only by the 
union of all princes for the defence of each that the 
power of any can be insured : and the only effectual 
combination for this purpose of first necessity is that 
under the guidance- and dictation of Russia. Her 
power therefore is as permanent as the revolutionary 
agitation. It must rest on its present basis, so long at 
the least as the spirit of liberty shall animate the 
masses of the people of Europe with the resolution 
to arm for the attainment of power. Every purpose 
of individual aggrandizement, of personal ambition, 
of territorial enlargement, is subordinate to the main- 



308 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

tenance of monarchical absolutism : and the power of 
the people is the external force which drives all 
the princes of continental Europe cowering beneath 
the Gorgon aegis of Russia. Before the fierce eyes 
of their people terror expels every repining thought 
and every ambitious aspiration. It deadens the sting 
of humbled royalty, as the passions of men sink into 
calm at the presence of death. To resist is to deliver 
themselves naked to their outraged, insulted, exasper- 
ated, and merciless subjects. At their hands, after the 
perjuries of 1848 and the bloody proscriptions which 
stained the victory of royalty, small grace could be 
expected in the hour of triumph. The majesty of 
monarchs would be soiled in the dust: and their 
prerogatives, if they existed at all, would be mocking 
shadows of their former power. The Russian dicta- 
torship, therefore, rests on its necessity for the de- 
fence of those who claim despotic power and spurn 
the moderate prerogatives of constitutional rule. 

But even constitutional monarchy would not now 
content the outraged people of Germany, Austria, 
Hungary, or Italy. They would have been satisfied 
with it in 1848. They actually accepted it, modeled 
their constitutions in monarchical forms, surmounted 
them with a crown emblasoned with ample and 
honorable prerogatives, and armed with powers 
adequate to its own protection, to the maintenance 
of order under the guardianship of liberty, and 
subjected to only such control as is necessary to 
secure the nation some safe guarantee of its rights. 
These constitutions were either voted by popular 
assemblies elected in the height of the revolu- 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 309 

tionary fever and representing the utmost demands 
of the mass of the nations, or they were accepted 
and acquiesced in by such bodies on the voluntary 
grants of the sovereigns. That mighty upheaval of 
Europe was not a revolt of Jacobins, nor of the red 
republicans, fiercely threatening royalty with death, 
and repelling any thing short of a republic as the 
form of European government. It was the fair, 
calm, and irresistible expression of the great mass of 
the people, declaring their confidence in monarchy, 
if surrounded with popular institutions The legis- 
lative assemblies, the responsible ministry, the na- 
tional guard, the freedom of the press, the adminis- 
tration of the laws by independent judges equally to 
all — these were the great central ideas around which 
the whole movement circled. For their attainment 
the masses of Europe rose with one consent, and, 
except small factions of madmen, the slaves of demo- 
cratic or of monarchical despotism, these were the 
limits of the popular demands. They left the king 
on the throne, armed with prerogatives as ample as 
those which guard and decorate the crown of Vic- 
toria. How these constitutions were gotten rid of it 
has been my painful task to narrate. 

The people of Europe now would not be content 
with such moderation. Their kings have destroyed 
their own cause. They have repelled popular and 
moderate constitutions and have clung to irre- 
sponsible power — in the face of pledges, promises, 
and oaths — in defiance of the almost unanimous cry 
of their people — in utter forgetfulness of the mag- 
nanimous moderation of their victorious subjects. 



310 THE DICTATORSHIP OF 

They have made their election, and repelled modera- 
tion from their council chambers. While cringing 
before the indignant wrath of their people, they 
hastily yielded to every demand, and confirmed it by 
a royal oath, to get time for a perjury. They plotted 
with a foreign despot the perjury they have com- 
mitted, laid the national independence at the mercy 
of the Czar as the price of his assistance in regaining 
their despotic power, and humbled their dignity before 
a master rather than consent to rule with moderate 
sway over a free yet loyal people. That people is 
disgusted with the faithlessness of those who rule over 
them. They despise the cowardice which fled and 
would not fight for the power clutched after so eagerly. 
They have learned that despotic power is now in the 
hands of men disgraced by every vice, faithless to 
every obligation, and not redeemed by personal 
courage in the defence of their usurpations. They 
have seen royal heads bowing humbly before the 
people, suing for time to betray them, fly in terror 
from their capitals, and return at the head of foreign 
armies to revoke and annul their solemn acts. Their 
people feel that even the rule of their master is no 
longer a national government — but that it represents 
a foreign domination. The love of freedom, the 
sense of nationality, the devotion to the independence 
of the country, all conspire to rouse the hatred and 
contempt of the people towards their masters. 
Their cruel proscriptions, the martyrdoms of the 
children of liberty, the holy blood shed by a brutal 
soldiery at the order of a court martial, in insolent 
defiance of the popular disgust, have sunk deep in 



RUSSIA IN EUROPE. 311 

their minds. They no longer rest in the faith of 
their fathers, nor will they be content that creatures 
thus defiled by blood and iniquity, faithless, cowardly, 
cruel, and cringing, shall rule over a free people. 
They cannot be trusted with the powers requisite for 
the good of the state, to be placed in the executive 
hand: for those powers have once already been 
turned to the destruction of the constitutions which 
gave them, and to the oppression of the people who 
in the honesty of their hearts confided in the faith 
of their rulers. If the people rise again, and again 
have the power in their hands, they will make short 
and sharp work with kings and crowns and thrones. 
Their wrath has been taught little moderation by 
those who have shewn no mercy and have known no 
faith. The blood of murdered heroes cries from the 
ground at Arad, against Haynau and his hell-cats, and 
the heartless and remorseless despots who let them 
loose. Aulich, Poltenberg, Lemingen, Nagy Sandor, 
Damianich, martyrs of liberty, heroes on the field of 
battle, struggling in honorable warfare for their 
nation's rights, betrayed by the traitorous Gorgey, 
and vilely done to death by the shooting party or the 
tree of shame, have laid up untold wrath against the 
terrible day of account. The noble blood of Batthi- 
anyi stains the tyrant's hands so deeply that it will 
not be washed out. The Hungarian plains decorated 
with the gallows trees — like telegraph posts on a 
highway — are one eternal summons to vengeance. 
Germany, delivered to the insults of a foreign soldiery, 
her men of heroic mould shot down at the word of a 
court martial, her very groan of agony stifled by the 



312 THE DICTATORSHIP OF RUSSIA. 

steel gauntlet of a strange master, pants for vengeance 
and sighs for the leader and the hour. The fate of 
Charles I. and of Louis XVI. , the terrors of Robes- 
pierre and Danton, the madness and ruin of the Great 
Deliverance are the bitter fruits stored up for the day 
of retribution by those crowned scourges of their 
kind who have imitated and exceeded the cruelties, 
the blood, and the phrenzy of the worst of the evil 
Genii of the Revolution. An avenging God will visit 
them by the hands of their people with the fit re- 
wards of their perjuries and their bloody deeds. 
The dogs of Austria which licked the righteous blood 
of Batthianyi shall yet lick that of those who shed it. 

By these terrors, by this necessity, by this threat- 
ened scourge are the despots of Europe bound to the 
Czar. He alone is able to protect them. He alone 
rules a people untainted by the revolutionary plague, 
docile in obedience, devoted to their master, and 
powerful and ready for every enterprise of arms. 
His power can be applied beyond his frontiers for the 
suppression of liberty : for no serious fear of internal 
disturbance restrains his arm from giving efficient 
aid. He defends himself by aiding them : and their 
union with him and submission to his will is their 
great security and their wisest policy. 

On these principles, it is not rash to say, that the 
centre of gravity of Europe has passed north of the 
Vistula : and St. Petersburg has become — the Capital 
of Europe. 



SECTION VII. 



THE RELATIONS OF 



AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 



TO THE 



RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP, 



40 



THE RELATIONS OF 

AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 



TO THE 



RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 



Ihe events of 1848 have placed in the hand of 
Russia no barren sceptre. It is not the unmeaning 
bauble that decorates the feeble hands of other 
princes — but a mace of crushing weight, lifted by a 
giant arm, in a cause where aggression is the only 
defence, in a contest which cannot be declined, and 
where the existence of the combatants is staked on v 
the issue. 

It is of vital moment to this Republic to ascertain 
if she do not stand in the line of its destructive 
descent. 

It is in no spirit of vain bravado, nor at the dicta- 
tion of a blind fanaticism, nor from any capricious 
hostility to liberal improvements, that the Autocrats 
of Russia have freely poured out their treasure and 
the blood of their soldiers in the defence of des- 
potism. They feel that they are fighting their own 
battle, and that it is one which is inevitable. 



316 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

They have calmly, deliberately, and justly come to 
the conclusion that popular sovereignty is absolutely 
incompatible with royal sovereignty; that there 
cannot be two co-equal sovereign powers in one 
state ; that the claim of the people has pushed them 
to the wall; and that they are driven to elect between 
a popular constitution and their absolute power. 

They have elected in favor of absolute power in 
their own hands. 

Experience has also convinced them that liberal 
ideas are contagious. They have ascertained that to 
encourage or to tolerate them is fatal — so congenial 
are they to the mind of man, so rapid is their spread, 
so vigorous is their working, so suddenly do they pass 
from speculation to action, from the mind to the field 
of battle. If, therefore, despotic power be incom- 
patible with popular sovereignty, and if popular sove- 
reignty be the legitimate fruit, the universal and 
necessary product of liberty of thought, of speech, 
and of action — of any participation in the high acts of 
government by the people — it is only consistent, wise, 
and logical, to war down and exterminate every thing 
that looks like, or leads to, or advocates popular 
government. The despotic powers of Europe — 
triumphant over the revolt of 1848 — have every 
where shewn the utmost resolution in acting on those 
views. They tolerate nothing that savors of liberty. 

But it is the peculiarity of liberty that it tends to 
spread. It radiates like light from a centre, and 
destroys darkness within its reach. Its influence 
does not stop at the lines of foreign states. Re- 
gardless of laws and of limits, it spreads like an ethe- 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 317 

rial essence, in spite of political and legal barriers. 
It shines into the heart of man wherever he may be, 
and finds a congenial reception. It wakes the slum- 
berer from the incubus of despotism, and breathes 
life into the dead in slavery. So long as a spark of it 
exists any where, it is ready to break into a flame. 

It is not enough to extinguish the spirit of liberty 
at home. It is almost as dangerous in a neighbor. 
It spreads across the bounds, and flashes conviction 
into benighted minds, and nerves the soul to high 
thoughts and daring deeds. If therefore the despots 
will maintain their power intact and undivided over 
their own subjects, it directly concerns them that their 
neighbor be as despotic as themselves. This is the 
foundation of the Holy Alliance. This it is which 
rouses the Czar to such strenuous hostility against 
every step towards liberty in any neighboring country. 
It is the great law of self-preservation logically ap- 
plied to the destruction of a principle, unquiet, ag- 
gressive, propagandist, by its very nature — always 
tending to stir up the people to war against des- 
potism, and if left to itself absolutely sure of success. 

If Germany could be free, if Hungary could be a 
republic, without disquieting the subjects of Nicholas, 
assuredly we should not have seen Russian armies 
crossing the Carpathians. If Spain could have en- 
joyed the blessings of constitutional liberty and her 
example had not tended to make France restive 
under the fraudulent mockery of her charter, we 
should have been spared the expedition to Cadiz. 
If Italy could be free and raise no longing after free- 
dom in the Austrian people, Metternich would hardly 



318 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY ■ 

have concerned himself to reinstate, at the head of a 
hundred thousand men, a dotard on the throne of 
Naples, which he had proved himself unable to hold. 

They felt that liberty any where was dangerous 
to despots every where, and they resolutely set to 
work to root it out. 

Nicholas is the devotee of this new faith, for in it 
alone can he find the salvation of his power, his 
crown, his empire of rich promise. He knows, if 
western Europe be democratic, Russia must cease to 
be despotic; and its despotism is its union, the centre 
of its might, the very principle of its expanding 
dominion. Free government, were the people fit for 
it, is as absolutely incompatible with the unity of 
Russia as it is with that of Austria. If Germany 
and Hungary were free, ideas of liberty must migrate 
across the border, and sooner or later enter the 
very penetralia of Russian despotism. Had they 
succeeded in 1848, there must have been an end of 
Russian dominion in the Polish provinces. A quarter, 
the most flourishing quarter, of the empire of Nicholas 
would have been lost. Any form of popular gov- 
ernment on the borders of Russia would have lighted 
up a conflagration which could have been extin- 
guished only in the ashes of the empire: for Poland 
is a great and ill-protected magazine of explosive 
material, which any day, by a chance spark, would 
explode with irresistible fury, and shatter down the 
last home of despotism on the continent of Europe. 

This Nicholas knew : and with logical consistency 
he called the invasion of Hungary a defensive war. 
With statesmanlike resolution he dared the worst, 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 319 

rather than tolerate a successful revolution on the 
side of his Polish provinces. If he were indifferent, 
the revolution must have been successful and the 
consequences to him ruinous. If he lent Austria his 
arms and she failed, he was little worse off than if he 
had been quiescent; some money, a few men, were 
well paid for by the damage they did ; and the hu- 
miliation of the defeat chiefly attached to the prin- 
cipal in the contest. If he succeeded, he delivered 
himself at once from an ever present terror, fatal in 
its influence, and sure in its workings. He knew 
that on the Hungarian plains he fought the battle for 
his crown; and fortune rewarded the resolution and 
the daring of the despot according to his merits. 

It is this deep conviction of the fatal contagion of 
liberty, founded on a true analysis of its nature and 
powers, which lies at the foundation of the alliance 
of sovereigns under the Dictatorship of Russia, for 
its extermination. 

This alliance has now endured the shocks of po- 
litical strife for more than thirty years, with various 
activity and success, but never broken down nor 
abandoned, and now triumphant in the cabinet and in 
the field. It has pursued its object under various 
disguises, under shifting pretexts with infinite art and 
endless activity. It has moved under the cloak of 
religion, and called itself holy. It has clamored for 
social order, and leagued the quiet and peaceful 
under its banner. It has strenuously defended what- 
ever existed, and arrogated to itself the epithet of 
conservative; and aristocratic traitors and mushroom 
rich civilians have sheltered their ignoble heads be- 



320 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

neath its aegis. It has called self-defence an assault, 
and punished it by confiscation of a nation's freedom. 
It has pronounced the oaths of sovereigns void when 
wrung from them by the national will — and armed to 
release them from the obligation, and to restore their 
yielded prerogatives. It has encouraged the abroga- 
tion by the monarch of a free constitution peacefully 
established, and in quiet and sedate operation ; and 
it has punished as revolution and rebellion the arming 
of the people to restore it. Swearing by things old, 
yet when a nation took up arms to maintain the con- 
stitution of a thousand years against the innovations 
of their sovereign, the sword of the chief of this 
alliance was swift to strike them down. The treaties 
of 1815 are the shibboleth of the league; yet the 
constitution of Poland and the independence of Cra- 
cow, guaranteed by their most solemn provisions, 
have been unscrupulously suppressed. Aghast with 
horror at the blood and phrenzy of the revolution, 
it has looked calmly on while its generals have deso- 
lated realms in its cause. Shocked at the sight of a 
crownless or of a headless king, it has delighted in 
the sacrifice of hecatombs of noble souls on the 
altars of its ambition. Wherever the issue has been 
between the nation and the king, whatever the point 
of dispute, whatever the merits of the parties, the 
Holly Allies have never taken but one side — that of 
the king against the nation. With the words of 
religion, social order, conservative government, on 
their lips, they have warred on only one thing — the 
spirit of liberty, in every form, under every pretext, 
and without pretext when one was wanting. It has 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 321 

consistently pursued to its extremest conclusions the 
principle of their politics — that liberty any where is 
incompatible with the quiet repose of despotism 
every where — and therefore it must be exterminated. 

This is a new thing under the sun. No previous 
age has witnessed or dreamed of it. Former poli- 
ticians derided such an alliance as impracticable, and 
predicted its speedy dissolution. Yet this has sur- 
vived unbroken and triumphant, still pursuing with 
unrelenting hostility the spirit of liberty, but never 
dragged aside by temporary advantages, never hurried 
into premature assaults, calm, wise, slow, and patient, 
biding its time till the hour to strike. 

The people have repeatedly every where proved 
themselves masters of their destiny against their do- 
mestic rulers. In Italy more than once, in Spain, in 
every state of Germany, in glorious and heroic Hun- 
gary, in France, in Lombardy, in Venice of old 
renown, have the people proved themselves by deeds 
of arms equal to the high task of wresting liberty 
from their oppressors. They have every where 
given this indispensable proof of their fitness for the 
freedom they sighed for. It is only possible when 
the power of the country is on its side, and, till that 
day, the powers of government are properly in other 
hands : for government is the power of the nation, 
and should be with those who can wield it. It is for 
this reason that no people can be said to be fit for 
freedom till they are able to cope with and control 
any domestic government which may oppress or 
oppose them. Every nation in Europe but Russia 
has given this proof, and most of them more than 
41 



322 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

once. But they have always been flung back beneath 
the rod of their masters by a power from abroad. 

The contest between a people and their govern- 
ment is always a difficult and doubtful one. Large 
masses of the population cling to whatever exists : 
many are too indifferent to risk life in battle or 
ignominy on the scaffold. All fight with a rope round 
their neck, and in the face of all the powers of 
organized government, usually armed with regular 
troops, and amply provided with the sinews of war. 
The government can never be overthrown till a 
decided majority of the nation are, not merely dis- 
contented, but actively, earnestly, and resolutely 
hostile to its continuance, and united on the substitute 
to fill its place. But when even all this exists, the 
contest is always so close that slight aid to either 
party is decisive. 

The genius of Cromwell is indebted to the absence 
of a standing army for the splendor of his triumph ; 
and Charles would have died king of England peace- 
fully on his couch had foreign arms or a domestic 
army seconded his endeavors. The endurance and 
the wisdom of Washington, the patriotism and cour- 
age of our fathers would have fainted before the op- 
pressive masses of foreign troops that more than once 
have been thrown into the contest for freedom of 
the nations of Europe. Even the elastic courage of 
France has confessed the burthen of this hostility. 
After twenty years of the wars of the giants the 
expelled Bourbons were forced on her. Reluctantly 
endured for fifteen years, they were expelled by a 
new revolution, and the faction of the legitimists 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 323 

remained as a root of bitterness with those of the 
republic and the empire. Louis Philippe disgusted 
the people, pampered his partizans, and was ex- 
pelled, leaving another faction. These four factions, 
the fruit of the wars of the allies against the liberty 
of France, disputed the mastery from 1848 till the 
usurpation of Louis Napoleon silenced them all. He 
now rules France with an iron rod, amid the exulta- 
tions and cheers, with the support and countenance 
of the despotic powers — only because the people are 
wearied and worn out with incessant revolutions — 
each necessary — each imposed by the iniquities of 
the despotic powers directly or indirectly — yet each 
serving to lead only to a new necessity. The allies 
have for the present triumphed over France — not 
in the field, not by open violence, but by the moral 
and political effects of pertinacious hostility on the 
minds of the French people. They are disheartened, 
exhausted, and in despair, that such stupendous ex- 
ertions and ruinous sacrifices have proved fruitless by 
the perfidy of their rulers, which leaves them no 
alternative but submission or an appeal to arms and 
civil strife. It has thus been the plan of the des- 
potic powers to wait the hour of exhaustion, or 
to anticipate the hour of readiness: they march ere 
the children of liberty have nerved themselves for 
battle, or clothed themselves in armor — they watch 
the hour of nascent rebellion, and strike while liberty 
is naked and defenceless. Thus have they smitten 
it down all over Europe when triumphant over those 
who alone were entitled to draw the sword in the 
contest. 



324 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

Where — as in France — armed and enthroned, it 
could defy direct assault, there they have poisoned 
liberty at the fountain, so that those who taste of it 
die. They have broken the cisterns and cumbered 
the streams with the fragments so that marshes and 
pools of water exhaled pestilence from their stagna- 
tion, while weeds of rank and poisonous growth 
cover the soft vale watered by its flow. Men sicken, 
where they sought salubrious airs, amid its mephitic 
exhalations, and despots mock bitterly at these — the 
sweets and fruits of boasted freedom ! ! 

For the first time in the history of the world has 
freedom been thus attacked, by an universal con- 
spiracy, in the cradle. Ere it had yet done good or 
evil it was fiercely set on ; and, though its Herculean 
infancy strangled those who sought its life, its youth 
and manhood have been pursued with unrelenting 
hate, by fraud and force, by temptation and defiance, 
by the poignard and the bowl, till overthrown, faint- 
ing, and dispirited, it threatens to vanish from the 
earth. 

Let no one boast its immortality; for spirits as im- 
mortal have yielded up the ghost to the faggot and 
the sword. Religion, fired by persecution into fanat- 
icism, sank beneath relentless bigotry and the civil 
sword in Belgium. The reformation in France was 
stifled in the blood of St. Bartholomew's day, and cast 
out by the repeal of the edict of Nantes. In Italy 
and in Spain its rising powers and spreading promise 
were cut short by the fires of the inquisition; and 
in half of Germany it yielded its spirit to similar 
weapons. The powers of persecution have thus 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 325 

often at least extinguished the most resolute of all 
rebellions — that of the conscience in the cause of 
religion; and surely the same powers which com- 
bined against it may now with equal success, under 
more favorable circumstances, trample down the 
spirit of liberty. We at this day of its humiliation 
and defeat — at least — ought not to be skeptical as to 
the possibility of its extinction. It now lies prostrate, 
powerless — giving small signs of life and less promise 
of resurrection. If it live and rise again, it will be to 
meet a like and final fate, unless it be succored and 
defended after a very different fashion from that cold 
indifference which greeted its last resurrection. 

But if the genius of liberty may be extinguished 
like the freedom of religion, it never is effectually 
done while it breathes any where. Religion meta- 
morphosed into bigotry and superstition, and burnt 
into the minds of a people, becomes a positive 
power — not merely repelling with horror and 
shrinking from, as sacrilege, the purest spirit of 
Christianity — but ready at any moment cheerfully to 
volunteer in a crusade for its destruction. Dominic 
and De Montfort led no reluctant or indifferent slaves 
to desolate Provence. 

But the love of liberty speaks in soft and winning 
accents to the heart of man — which leaps in sponta- 
neous sympathy to her voice. Despotism may rest 
on contented heads — but as such it wakes no enthu- 
siasm, and its dominion is ever ready to vanish with 
the dawning light. If it is to be permanent, it must 
dwell in darkness. Men must know of nothing 
better — lest they desire it. 



326 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

The Holy Allies cannot ever rest in peace till 
liberty has ceased from the world. They dare not 
lay their armor aside till there is nothing more of 
light and liberty to conquer. It is not enough to 
prove it mortal, they can celebrate no final triumph 
but over its grave. They cannot rest quietly on their 
thrones, till the spirit of Liberty in its last agony, 
shall in yielding up the ghost cry aloud — it is finished ! 

It may strike us with horror to indulge the thought, 
of such an iniquity as an assault on English liberty: 
but Hungary was as free, as venerable, and as vir- 
tuous — yet it fell; and at some day not distant mea- 
sured by the life of nations, in some mode not difficult 
to indicate, such an assault is not only possible — but 
sure as the flight of time. 

On the confines of European darkness, so thick 
that it may be felt — still flames the Pharos of English 
liberty : and against it are the scowl and hate of 
tyrants bent. They must extinguish it — or be them- 
selves consumed. They have no choice left. They 
have chosen their part and they must act it out — and 
the penalty of failure or faltering is — death. 

So long as England exists resplendent in all the 
glories of liberty, despotism can find no safe and 
quiet abode on the continent of Europe. In form a 
monarchy — her crown is a shadow of a departed 
power — so thin that the stars which lead the coming 
day shine through it — yet paling before a more efful- 
gent light. Her aristocracy — once the strength, now 
little more than the ornament of the throne, — has 
deeper roots and more inherent power. It is of 
sturdy growth and might deliver serious battle for its 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 327 

existence : but before the real power of the state it 
is — nothing. A breath — and it is gone. But behind 
and beneath all, the foundation and the wall of that 
glorious fortress " formed to freedom's hands/' stand 
the great mass of the people of England, her in- 
domitable and heroic yeomanry — the democracy mili- 
tant — in fact though not in form, the governing power 
of the country. Their free ideas, their bold spirit of 
independence, their sturdy hatred of tyranny, their 
deep sympathy for the oppressed, will ever speak in 
trumpet tones — enough to wake the dead beneath the 
pall of despotism, and sound the advent of the judg- 
ment day. The miracles of their art and industry, 
the ceaseless activity of their enterprise, the smile of 
happiness that shines over their land — all perpetually 
personify and proclaim the blessings of liberty. No 
nation is so distant that they cannot see this light in 
the sky — none so dull that they cannot confess the 
majesty of this example — none so besotted as not to 
feel the waking longing after its nameless, endless, 
priceless, blessings. Vain, while it exists, are custom- 
house barriers — paper blockades — literary censor- 
ships — inexorable exclusions — laws of non-inter- 
course. They might as well decree eternal night, 
and veil the sun at his going forth — as leave the giant 
of English liberty unbound — and forbid him to run 
his course. They must smite him, or — he will smite 
them. 

That the will exists, who so simple as to doubt — if 
only it may be safely and successfully done. They 
who have laid liberty low on the continent feel and 
know that the busy hum of English liberty is ever 



328 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

exciting their oppressed subjects to rise, and that the 
plain spoken words of indignation at their doings are 
holding them up to the hatred and contempt of their 
people. Their war is against liberty as incompatible 
with despotism : and what so dangerous as the ex- 
ample and the power of free England. Her freedom 
is not older than that of Hungary — but infinitely 
more dangerous. Her example is more contagious 
than that of Spain — for her liberty imbrued its hands 
in the blood of her kings, and they who now rule 
over her are there by the choice of the people. With 
her boisterous and turbulent sons, fierce in tongue 
and resolute in act — tenacious of legal rights and 
defiant of official encroachments — irreverent towards 
foreign royalty and not very respectful of that at 
home — jealous of absolute freedom of speech, and 
proud to signalize it in the High Court of Parliament 
by language that from no other quarter of Europe 
rings so loudly in the ears of princes — how can she 
be left to stand, if she may be stricken down. She 
stands in the direct line of precedents — she is guilty 
of every liberal sin — bristling with every danger that 
terrifies ambitious despotism. It were scarcely worth 
the while to stain the hand with Spanish, or German, 
or Hungarian blood, if England may live, and breathe 
the words of freedom. 

How and when the assault may be made, is — for 
the prophet or the historian. I claim to be neither. 
I use the facts of the past to calculate the dangers of 
the future — for the guidance of the men of this 
day. It is enough to shew the will, the existence 
of a deeply seated plan of policy — hitherto pursued 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 329 

consistently, resolutely, and unfalteringly — but never 
rashly or hastily — guiding the power of the mightiest 
military monarchies of Europe — and that England 
stands in the way of that policy, is its chief, it may 
be its only obstacle to entire success, — for statesman 
to foresee and provide against the collision which 
time must develope. 

No man may predict the mode of that attack. 
Amid the infinite combinations which the politics of 
this troublous era present, pretexts will not be want- 
ing. What if Russia and France agree to assign to 
the former Constantinople and Turkey in Europe, to 
the latter the line of the Rhine, or Egypt ; or Russia 
arm Persia and Afghanistan and the Tartar hordes 
against British India? If Russia march on Constan- 
tinople, England must meet her there — or w T ait, and 
meet her with augmented power, and a more disci- 
plined and efficient navy, at Suez, a few years later. 
If France in alliance with Russia grasp at Egypt and 
assert the mastery of the Red Sea and the line of the 
Euphrates, England cannot decline the battle, unless 
she is prepared to surrender her Indian empire. It 
is at these indispensable points that England is most 
vulnerable. We are not driven to the necessity of 
calculating the chances of a successful invasion. Eng- 
land on her own soil, now, united, and fresh, is a 
match for all Europe. The clamors of French in- 
vasion may have good foundation in the ambitious 
daring of the upstart usurper. It is no part of the 
profound Philippic policy of the Autocrat of Russia. 
That policy will hazard no ruinous defeats — no dis- 
crediting failures. It will seek no rash and barely 
42 



330 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

possible triumphs. Time is for it, and its haste is 
slow. It will strike vital points at the extremities, 
worry and weary by long, and vexatious, and distant 
contests, compel the putting forth of every power to 
maintain dependencies which are as necessary chan- 
nels of English industry as veins are for the blood. 
If they be cut off, the ruin of the centre is slowly but 
surely consummated. Russia is rapidly spreading 
her actual government over Asia, and her influence 
spreads far in advance of her government. She is 
the neighbor of Persia, which is the neighbor of 
England in India. Her agents flit like demons of the 
night around the skirts of the English dominions. 
They were felt and seen in the Afghan war. They 
can discipline, organize, arm, and direct the Tartar, the 
Persian, the Belooch, the Sikh, — better materials for 
an army than the native troops which under English 
officers form the mass of her Indian army. Russia 
may thus meet England in her own dominions with 
troops drawn from her borders, and compel her to 
fight on her own soil for her empire. How the popu- 
lations of India would side, it is vain to conjecture: 
but it would be more strange for her recently con- 
quered provinces to be faithful, than that they should 
eagerly join any standard adequate to support them. 
Russia is the only military power that can support 
an army at Constantinople or in Egypt, without the 
aid of a navy. She now holds the passes of the 
Caucasus, and her territory eats far down into Ar- 
menia. She can coax or coerce a free passage over 
the Dardanelles : or, subject only to the necessity of 
defending them, she can in safety land on the Turkish 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 331 

shore of the Euxine, as many troops as she needs 
for operations on the Euphrates or in Egypt, and 
march them unopposed by any adequate force to 
their destination. If therefore Russia retain the 
dictatorship of Europe, the fate of the English em- 
pire depends upon her ability to measure swords with 
Russia, without European allies, in Asia Minor, 
in Egypt, and in India; and failure is to England 
ruinous, without a blow struck on English soil. 

But we are not entitled to predict eternal quiet to 
England at home. Elements of discord are there 
brewing. Civil disturbances lie concealed in her 
dense population, and the discontents and suffering, 
occasional or perpetual, of large masses. The demo- 
cratic spirit is rife, and radicals clamor for conces- 
sions, and might be induced to urge their claims in 
arms. The red republic has its representatives, and 
the socialist theory will nourish with rank luxuriance 
in her manufacturing districts. It will not be the 
first time nor the only place that despotic powers 
have agitated in the name of liberty for the cause 
of despotism. Russia has signalized her art in this 
department more than once at the expense of Turkey; 
and the seeds of the Greek revolution were scattered 
by her hand, that their growth might unsettle the 
walls of the empire. A civil war for republican in- 
stitutions in England is by no means a distant contin- 
gency. The discontents of Ireland are an ever open 
door for foreign interference; and steam navies 
change the whole conditions of the problem as to the 
possibility of exciting or aiding them. By this policy, 
under the dictatorship of Russia, wielding the power 



332 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

of Europe, or of the whole north of the Rhine, the 
fall of England is not only no remote contingency, 
but it is the natural result of the continuance of 
causes and a policy now existing, successful for thirty 
years, with continued motives for perseverance, and 
now stronger, more united, and more under the con- 
trol of a central head than ever before. 

The power of England is to Europe now, what 
that of the Dutch was formerly : and similar causes 
but of greater intensity may bring her proud head to 
as great humiliation. England's strength, like that 
of the Dutch Republic when Van Tromp and De 
Ruyter swept the Channel — lies in her colonies, her 
dependencies, and her marine. Never a first rate mili- 
tary power on the continent, she has played her part 
there by subsidies, by alliances, by the genius of her 
generals at the head of allied troops with small bodies 
of her own. Her size is contracted — her population 
pressing the confines of its possible limits — while the 
expanse of Russia offers room for additional millions, 
and her continental neighbors may double theirs with 
comparative convenience. The advance of the rest 
of Europe tends directly and inevitably to the rela- 
tive decline of English power and influence. Her 
genius and industry and commercial enterprise may 
keep up the unequal contest for a long time; but she 
must see across the channel in the Dutch Republic 
the foreshadowing of her own fate, and one as speedy 
as it is unavoidable, if Russian counsels are to dictate 
the policy of Europe. 

She must expect to be assailed by arts and intrigues 
as well as arms — traitors will worm their way into 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 333 

high places — feed orators may stir up sedition — paid 
patriots may prefer Russian aid for the introduction 
of the republic to English independence under aris- 
tocratic forms — dearth of military genius may fall on 
her, and sterility prepare the way for defeat — fierce 
factions may drink in bitterness in civil feuds, and 
invoke an arbiter from abroad. The power of corrup- 
tion, intrigue, and force, at the control of the man 
who dictates the policy of the chief continental na- 
tions, in this revolutionary era, in a country so filled 
with elements of discord as England, are beyond the 
reach of calculation. How efficient they may prove 
in a critical emergency — when national existence may 
depend on one man — the traitors of heroic Hungary 
and Poland may illustrate. With a Charles or a 
James on the throne — a Strafford at the head of affairs 
veiling his designs with popular art — some English 
Gorgey in command of her army or navy — the Czar 
lavishing his resources to aid his royal cousin in 
yoking his rebellious subjects, wearied with an ex- 
hausting war for India, and divided in the great 
struggle between numbers and property at home — 
these things, within the experiences of this age, are 
sufficient to render a final account of English empire 
and English freedom. 

Grecian genius has left the model of liberty for 
the inspiration of future ages. It has also left 
the plan by which it may be encountered and de- 
stroyed. Every usurpation of later day effected by 
any thing but barbarous force has been a coarse and 
distant imitation of the classic art with which Philip 
subjugated the fierce and turbulent democracy of 



334 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

Greece. The rise of the Russian Empire, and its 
march to the control of Europe is the closest imi- 
tation history furnishes of the great model. 

Europe — like Greece — is a peninsula jutting out 
from a great continent — whose southern portion is 
occupied by numerous highly civilized, populous, 
powerful, but jealous and discordant governments. 
North of these in both cases stretched a wide ex- 
panse, inhabited by semi-barbarous tribes scattered 
over a sparsely populated country of great but un- 
developed resources: In both cases a prince unlike 
any of his predecessors arose, of far-reaching genius 
and indomitable energy, the impetus of whose 
activity urged the course of improvement within, and 
the power of his arms and diplomacy without, so 
rapidly, that in a brief space the northern wilds were 
the seat of a nourishing empire, powerful in arts and 
arms, of martial spirit and aggressive tendency — 
pursuing with steady policy and regular success ag- 
grandizement on all sides at the expense of his 
neighbors. 

Both empires were cut off from the two seas which 
stretched on each side of them: and Thessaly and 
Poland respectively lay between the growing and 
aggressive power and the southern and civilized 
states. 

Athens, with her dependencies scattered far as the 
Euxine and the Bosphorus, her naval power and com- 
mercial activity, was the England — as Sparta with her 
military might and lofty spirit was the France of that 
system : while Boeotia, interposed between them and 
the northern power, — alternately the ally, the stumb- 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 335 

ling block, the foe, and the victim of the Autocrat 
Philip — was the Germany of Greece. 

While Athens was entangled in the social war and 
Sparta struggling to regain her ascendency in the 
Peloponnesus, Philip seized Pasonia, dismembered 
Illyria, fooled Athens out of Amphipolis ; and thus 
doubling his power while he touched the Hadriatic 
by his dependencies and the iEgean by his territory, 
he came in contact with the naval empire of Athens 
and acquired the resources requisite to emulate her 
power on the sea. 

Thessaly excluded Philip from the affairs of Greece, 
as Poland barred Russia from Europe : factions and 
tyrants and civil discord invited his intervention : and 
the people delivered from many oppressors cheerfully 
yielded to the dictation of a mild and skilful ruler, 
who was content to have the freedoms and the bene- 
fits apart from the burthens of its government. 
Philip become master of Thessaly — as Russia, of 
Poland — while the southern states were immersed in 
domestic discords or private ambition : and his con- 
quest was perfected without a protest or an opposi- 
tion. He had become a Grecian power, stationed at 
the entrance of Thermopylae: Athens looked on in 
silence, engrossed in her games and shows, her 
theatrical scenes and the rhetorical struggles of the 
Agora. 

With infinite address he stirred up dissensions in 
Euboea — the Ireland of Athens — he assailed covertly 
her allies, her dependencies, points essential to her 
trade, with professions of friendship on his lips, 
apologies for his encroachments, often compensation 



336 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

for his conquests. He cheated Athens out of the 
Olynthian alliance — cajoled Olynthus with promises 
and caresses — and then struck her confederacy to the 
ground, — while Athens debated their deliverance, 
weighed the arguments of his advocates against the 
patriotic remonstrances of Demosthenes, and sent 
inadequate forces under false and incompetent leaders 
in time to witness a fall they were too late to prevent 
and too feeble to restore. 

The Amphictyonic council under the dictation of 
Thebes denounced high penalties against Phocis and 
Sparta, and all Greece was convulsed with the sacred 
war. It spread to Thessaly — and Philip covered 
himself with glory and the reputation of the defender 
of the faith, while consolidating his power at the ex- 
pense of the state whose territory held Thermopylae. 
He followed up his success by marching on the pass ; 
but that was too palpable for Athenian indifference 
to fail to understand. She flew to arms, garrisoned 
the straits, and Philip paused, — as Nicholas did at 
Adrianople, before the English. 

The Holy Alliance is the Amphictyonic council of 
Europe: it speaks in the name and fights for the 
cause of religion and social order: and Nicholas 
uses it as Philip did the Amphictyons of Greece. 

By bribery he opened the pass of Thermopylae — 
obtained a decree for the extermination of the sacri- 
legious Phocians — and executed the orders of the 
Amphictyons with fire and sword — till Greece stood 
aghast at the horrible sack, and Athens stricken 
with terror laid aside her arms and sunk her protest 
into a plea for peace. Philip was within the sacred 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 337 

bounds of Grecian liberty — oppressing by the terror 
of his presence his most powerful opponents — who 
feared to call down on them the anathemas of the sa- 
cred council whose voice he inspired. Yet he made 
no haste to snatch prematurely at the prize — for com- 
bination among his enemies might yet convert his vic- 
tims into his masters. Europe, within thirty years has 
seen her Amphictyonic decrees executed with fire 
and sword on Naples, on Spain, on Germany, on Po- 
land, and on Hungary. The free powers have mur- 
mured, protested, and acquiesced — terror stricken 
before the visitation, divided in councils, bewildered 
by intrigues, and paralyzed between the adverse ter- 
rors of the revolution and its sworn exterminator. 
Where Nicholas prostrated Hungary in the cause of 
Austria he laid open the only Thermopylae which 
barred his march to Constantinople — and to the mas- 
tery of Europe. 

The Bosphorus and Byzantium were to Athens 
what the Bosphorus and Constantinople and Egypt 
and the Euphrates are to England. 

Philip withdrew himself from Greece, and struck 
at the distant but vital points in the naval empire of 
Athens. Again the Agora resounded with the conflict 
between Demosthenes, unveiling the future and ex- 
posing the artifices of the great agitator — and his 
spies and abettors, who extenuated his acts and 
pleaded his cause before the Athenians. But they 
armed in earnest, and their alacrity foiled Philip be- 
fore Byzantium — somewhat as England, though in 
alliance with Russia, saved Constantinople by her 
prompt operations in Syria and Egypt: for Me- 
43 



338 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

hemet Ali, while the enemy of the Porte, played into 
the hands of Russia. 

Biding his time, Philip withdrew from the face 
of a power he could not oppose into the wilds of 
Scythia — while his emissaries plotted new treasons — 
stirred up new sacred wars — got new Amphictyonic 
decrees of extermination. Then he made their lan- 
guid execution by his creatures the pretext for invest- 
ing him with — the leadership of the Amphictyonic 
army to execute their behest. 

Armed with the authority of its central power, 
Philip stood in the midst of Greece — invested with 
all the terrors of superstition — firm in the resolution 
to abide the worst — secure in the dissensions of the 
states — in the jealousy of the minor republics towards 
Athens and Sparta — in the enfeeblement of the latter 
by his Peloponnesian expedition — in the activity of 
his partizans among the clamorous democracies that 
would not combine for his overthrow. 

He seized Elatea — and a shudder of approaching 
fate thrilled through Greece. He marched to Chae- 
ronea — and the land of Leonidas and Miltiades — 
committed to the folly of Lysicles, and the effeminate 
vices of Chares, and the faithlessness of Theagenes, 
while Phocion remained in obscurity — in a single 
day passed under the dominion of Philip. 

Europe awaits her Chaeronea. 

There was no moment of Philip's career up to the 
day of Chaeronea that Athens in arms under competent 
leaders was not more than his match. Had Sparta 
and Athens united, the conflict would have been 
speedily and easily decided. But sloth, and division, 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 339 

and hesitation, and boastful confidence, and the short- 
sightedness of democracy, which will never antici- 
pate and repel danger at a distance, allowed Philip 
to hem in their dependencies, cut off their resources, 
sow dissensions among their allies, and defeat in detail 
powers which united would have been irresistible. 

The lesson is full of instruction in our day for 
Europe and for America. The same game is being 
played with consummate skill — under more favorable 
auspices — hitherto without check — already centering 
a dictatorial power in the hands of Russia, which 
only waits a favorable opportunity to shew itself as 
the governing power of Europe. 

We neglect the lesson if we wait till Russia take 
the form and assume the functions of municipal gov- 
ernment. That is not to be expected — if her effort 
be successful — within the limits of a century. It 
is not the form but the reality to which statesmen 
look. The effort of a conquering power is always 
to conceal while it grasps the control of affairs — to 
withdraw from the popular gaze any striking altera- 
tions — to deceive the eye with the sameness of ex- 
ternal forms — to lull the passions by respect for usages 
and customs — to cheat the people, by freedom in mu- 
nicipal affairs, into acquiescence in the entire with- 
drawal of public and foreign affairs from them. 

Philip changed — after the battle of Choeronea — 
no government in Greece. He did not even occupy 
Athens. The Greek republics all retained their forms, 
their laws, their courts, their assemblies. The rights 
of peace and war were not even taken away. Their 
relations among each other were not altered. They 



340 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

were dependent on a common power which by its 
unity controlled them to its purposes, dictated their 
external relations, disposed of their military power, 
occupied their strong positions so as to hold them in 
check : but the forms of municipal government, the 
freedom of legislative and judicial proceedings, the 
laws of commerce and intercourse were not changed. 
Athens retained the symbols of sovereignty as fully 
when her citizens listened to Demosthenes in the 
splendid oration concerning the crown, as when they 
condemned Socrates to the hemlock. The relation 
of Philip to Greece was that of leader to dependent. 
It is the initiative form of every conquering power. 
So Italy and the Confederation of the Rhine and the 
Kingdom of Prussia followed Napoleon to Moscow. 
Rome led her allies before she converted them into 
provincial subjects. England dictated the law in 
India far beyond her legal frontiers, in anticipation 
of the assumption of the forms of actual sovereignty. 

This is what now exists over all the north of 
Europe, and which threatens to be universal— if it 
be not arrested. It is the first stage of universal 
empire; and, for all the purposes of aggressive am- 
bition, it is as pregnant with danger to the inde- 
pendence of nations. 

The power of Russia is the more dangerous at this 
stage — because her domination rests on the interests 
of the governments she controls: and their interests 
are hostile to the spirit of freedom and to the ad- 
vance of popular government. They combine from 
necessity and from choice to defeat a common enemy : 
and the power of Russia over their movements rests 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 341 

on the sure and permanent foundation of their de- 
fencelessness and her sole ability to defend them. 

The dictatorship of Russia, therefore, is not to be 
looked for in the shape of an actual government — 
but of an invisible power operating through diplo- 
matic forms, and supported by military power — 
speaking through the voice of domestic rulers words 
she has put there — and standing guaranty for the en- 
forcement of whatever they may resolve. In this 
form, this generation has seen Europe governed by 
Napoleon. But his power was from its very origin 
transitory as it was absolute and irresistible for the 
time. That of Russia is founded on what Napoleon 
had to defy — the domestic governments of Europe. 
It has the central empire of Russia as its nucleus and 
support — an undisputed monarchy as its head — a 
martial population as its soldiery — despotic will as 
its guide — and unity of thought and action to direct 
its activity. It is animated by one spirit and policy. 
Its great object is the extinction of liberty in the 
world : and on this is founded its claim and its hope 
of universal empire. 

Like the power of Philip, it owes its increase to 
the supineness, the divisions, the indifference, the 
timidity of those interested to oppose it. All Europe 
has stood silently by — prating about the balance of 
power — ready to tear each other to pieces for a strip 
of territory on the Rhine — and allowed vast empires 
to be absorbed into the colossal mass of Russia. 

Worse than that — the free powers of Europe have 
stood silent and inactive while a crusade has been 
preached against liberty, and Russia has assumed the 



342 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

lead of its powers, and again and again, in outra- 
geous violation of the laws of nations, stricken down 
people struggling for their national rights, and aug- 
mented her power by the divisions and the weak- 
nesses of her natural opponents. 

England is guilty of sins of commission and of 
omission against the cause of liberty of deep malig- 
nity. She has been — 

Although no tyrant, one 
Who shielded tyrants. 

Her arms joined and animated the coalition which 
turned the revolution of France to blood, and con- 
densed her freedom into a despotism which shook 
Europe to its foundations. She is stained by asso- 
ciation in the scheme of the Holy Alliance. — 
Though she has repented and turned from that 
iniquity, she has brought forth no fruits meet for 
repentance. Naples fell without even a protest. 
She faintly protested against the iniquitous blow at 
Spain — but did not arm to prevent it. She spoke 
sternly only when she hoped to break the barriers 
which excluded her from the Spanish American 
markets. She protested against the occupation of 
Cracow. She protested against the annihilation of 
Poland in 1830. But she did not draw the sword in 
the cause of right when sound policy imperatively 
required it — when the alliance of Austria and Russia 
could have been forever broken — when Poland could 
have been reinstated among the powers of Europe — 
when the integrity of Russia could have been shat- 
tered and a limit placed to her aggression. 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 343 

She did not aid the revolutions which she en- 
couraged in 1848. She stood by, a silent and inac- 
tive spectator while freedom was extinguished in 
every land. She looked calmly on while Hungary 
was trodden down — when prompt action, the loan of 
money, the advance of arms, the peremptory protest 
under penalty of war, would have changed her fate. 
Again she flung away the chance of raising Poland, 
restoring its independence, dismembering the empire 
of Russia, and delivering Europe from her dictation, 
and her Indian Empire from its most formidable 
assailant. She was blind alike to her own interests 
and to the requirements of high policy. 

She was fettered by a temporizing spirit, by the 
aversion of her aristocracy to revolutions, by the 
clamorous imputations of socialism and red-repub- 
licanism to the revolutionary leaders, by the sym- 
pathies of her rulers and aristocrats for the govern- 
ments of Europe more than by the sympathies of 
her people for the liberties of mankind. She has 
laid up in store bitter fruits for herself and her 
people. She has from these motives permitted the 
golden hours of 1848 to pass, the friends of freedom, 
her natural allies, to be overwhelmed for lack of 
her aid. She has resigned Europe to the dictatorship 
of Russia, and isolated herself in its midst. She 
stands a solitary and tempting prize for the cupidity 
and the ambition of Russia — more dangerous if let 
alone than if assailed — and promising rewards to 
triumph more than equal to the risk of the attempt. 
England must either be the accomplice, the victim, 
or the conqueror, of the allied despots. 



344 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

Across the Atlantic there is another people allied 
in blood, in institutions, and in character, which 
must share the fate of England. That power is 
more dangerous, more hateful, and more hostile, to 
the coalition of the foes of freedom. Is it the Rome 
of the modern world? 

The Republic of the United States is the first 
born of the revolution. She is the oldest, the most 
powerful, the most consistent, the most uncompromi- 
sing assertor of the right of man to self-government. 
Her children are born free, and their birth-right is 
its enjoyment. Their earliest lesson is the hatred 
of tyranny, the love of their revolutionary forefathers, 
the duty to hold life second to liberty. Their riper 
years are initiated into the holy mysteries of self- 
government; and their life is spent in its exercise 
and enjoyment. There is no difference of feeling 
or opinion. No schism cleaves the fabric of our po- 
litical edifice from the turrets to the foundation. On 
this point it is a unit. Freedom of speech and of the 
press, the universality of education and of reading 
habituate the people to the formation and the ex- 
pression of bold and resolute opinions on all matters 
of public moment. After the particular business 
of each, that which most occupies their thoughts 
and words, and studious hours is — the blessings, the 
hopes, the dangers of the liberty they enjoy. Their 
sympathies are as wide as the world. Their hatred 
of oppression follows the oppressor to its confines. 
No where is a blow struck for freedom without their 
prayers for its success — their cheers for its tri- 
umph — their tears for its failure. They utter in no 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 345 

measured terms their detestation of its enemies, and 
fly to greet the exile on their hospitable shores. 
The sufferings of the Irish, convicted of ill-advised 
patriotism, — the heroic countrymen of Kosciusko, 
escaping from the ruins of their falling country, — the 
heroes of Hungary, betrayed by those they trusted 
and hasting to save their enemies the stain of their 
blood — all are met with outstretched arms: and 
people and government delight in doing honor to 
the persecuted children of liberty. No revolution 
shakes the despotic thrones of Europe that our 
hearts do not beat high as they totter. We sway 
to and fro with the wavering conflict; and when 
the fires of battle are extinguished in the blood of 
the victims, we go mourning to our homes — as if 
some national calamity spread its pall over our land. 
The muttered curse betrays the fire within; and 
youth sighs for an opportunity to strike or to bleed 
in the holy cause. They symbolize their devotion 
in the persons of those who have suffered in its 
cause; and the people roll after him whose name is 
forever blended with Hungarian freedom — like some 
tidal wave that swells from shore to shore. 

The name of the American Republic is potent 
among the nations. It is the watchword around the 
camp-fire, it is the model in the senate, it is the hope 
of struggling humanity. Its proud elevation, its 
peaceful splendor, its military prowess hitherto sig- 
nalized only in defence, the plenty that rewards its 
industry, its wide asylum for the exile and the wan- 
derer, the simple majesty of its government that like 
the power divine " spreads undivided and operates 
44 



346 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

unspent/ 7 mighty at the extremity as at the centre, 
swaying with a silent omnipotence, powerful to punish 
yet powerless to oppress, unshaken in seventy years 
alone of all the nations by civil discord, unstained by 
fraternal blood, so mild in its rule that no treason 
has ever lifted its hand against its authority — these 
its glories cover with shame and cast into the shade 
the gaudy and blood-stained idols that elsewhere 
crush humanity in their course, and boast them- 
selves the sole possessors on earth of the right 
divine to rule. Who would not fly to its shelter 
and cheerfully defy death and the grave to secure 
its blessings for his children's children ? — English- 
men, justly enamored of their venerable and glorious 
government, yet pronounce this the most perfect 
government ever devised by the wisdom of man. 
The wisdom of Germany in parliament assembled 
could contrive nothing better, and humbly copied the 
model. The people of Europe, wearied with their 
struggles, or fearful of their safety, or oppressed in 
their pursuits, flock by the million beneath its shield; 
and they who remain meditate on its beauties, and 
sigh for its blessings, till the peasant's arm is nerved 
with the strength of the hero for the war to obtain 
them. No art, no power, no tyranny can banish its 
name or destroy its memory. It has stamped the 
name of liberty on the minds of the people of this 
generation. It is the perpetual pleading by example 
for the rights and the blessings of legal constitutional 
liberty. It is one vast organized society de libertate 
propaganda. While it breathes and moves and has 
being no despotic power on earth can quietly rest or 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 34? 

securely repose. \ -Its life must be one of vigilance, of 
eternal readiness, of merciless coercion, of stern, re- 
lentless, bloody war, within or without, against its 
influences, its ideas, its existence, its very memory. 
Such is its moral power, the penetrating influence 
of its peaceful example. 

But the nation which is thus resplendent in the 
arts of peace and the light of liberty wears its 
gorgeous robes over armor of steel. 

This people, so ardent, so sympathetic, so devoted, 
has passed in seventy years from the gristle of un- 
formed youth to the bone and sinew, the developed 
form and well knit limbs of perfect manhood. Its 
territory is no aggregate of conquered districts, filled 
with hostile and lukewarm nations. It has expanded 
from less than a million to more than three millions 
of square miles, washed by the lakes and the gulf 
on the north and the south, and by the two great 
oceans on the east and the west — and embraces 
the body of the continent in its domain. Its merchant 
vessels whiten every sea, and its commercial marine 
equals or surpasses that of any other nation — inex- 
haustible in materials for the best and most powerful 
navy in the world. A population such as the world 
cannot equal fills with the hum of industry this vast 
territory. Its cultivation, its thought," its language 
and literature, its habits and manners are the same, 
and so strong is its individuality and so powerful is 
its faculty of assimilation, that the hundreds of thous- 
ands of European emigrants of every nation, language, 
and condition sink into its bosom — like rain drops 
into the rivers, swelling their current while indisso- 



348 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

lubly blending with their waves. This people has 
swollen within the limits of the life of man from three 
to more than twenty-three millions — a population 
such as France could not boast when she prostrated 
Europe before her march. More than two millions 
of armed men — soldiers by birth, by nature, by early 
education, by manliness of spirit, by habitude of self- 
reliance and self-defence — who are fitted to obey be- 
cause accustomed to the obedience of liberty and the 
laws, whom a campaign of a month converts into the 
regular soldier, and the word of command in his 
country's cause elevates to a hero — these men — the 
cheap yet priceless defence of the nation — stand ever 
ready to guard their hearths and their altars from 
hostile feet whether near or remote. They laugh to 
scorn the thought of subjugation, and rather court 
the attempt that they may be forced to free the world 
from the terror of the only power that threatens 
them. 

This republic rose in this new world like a pale 
star glimmering on the distant horizon, whose strange 
beams fixed the gaze of the wise men of Europe 
and attracted every eye as it announced the dawn of 
that day when men should no longer slumber. 
Earnest eyes watched and worshipped its augmenting 
splendor — till now it has mounted to the zenith and 
blazes in the heavens, the sun of the day of Liberty : 
and to it are the kings and the people turned — in 
hatred or in hope. 

What land so distant, what eye so dull, what soul 
so dead, as not to confess its genial power? Where 
sighs the oppressed under the whole heavens who 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 349 

does not turn to its rising, and adore while he longs 
for its peaceful and heavenly light? 

Where scowls the despot who does not feel and 
hate its glory — which may not be hidden ? 

Even now, Nicholas of evil omen stands — as Satan 
on his mission of sin from Hell to Eden — and pale 
with ire, envy, and despair, thus proclaims his hate — 

" Oh Thou that with surpassing glory crowned, 
Look'st from thy sole dominion like the God 
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars 
Hide their diminished heads : to Thee I call, 
But with no friendly voice — and add Thy name, 
Oh Sun! to tell Thee how I hate Thy beams — " 

And shall he not add — when the prophetic scales 
hang out on high which weigh his waning power — 

" That bring to my remembrance from what state 
I fell — how glorious once above thy sphere, 
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down." 

But shall he be reduced to this humiliating boast 
of his vanished greatness? Or shall he — even though 
failing of the full fruits of his mission — while de- 
clining that final contest which would shake the 
pillars of the world, yet by his arts and arms reduce 
this new world so near the semblance of his hell as to 
obscure its glory and banish its dangerous influence ? 

That the quiet reign of despotism in Europe is 
incompatible with liberty here has been demonstrated. 
That every motive of self-preservation forces the 
despotic powers to assail us in self-defence is plain. 



350 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

That the concentration of the power of Europe for 
external aggression in the hands of one despotic dic- 
tator must seriously menace our peace and safety, 
and in the hands of Russia that it would be directed 
to that end, is only the teaching of the history of our 
own day : and that contingency is sufficiently near to 
fix the anxious eye of every statesman. 

The subjection of Europe permanently to any one 
power would be an event of serious import to this 
county. It would be the creation of a power mili- 
tary and naval before which our utmost strength 
would be as nothing. Our safety would be depen- 
dent on its mercy or its justice. A struggle now 
single handed with the English navy would strain 
our resources to the utmost, and years would not 
heal the wounds of such a war; but what would that 
be to a struggle against all Europe? 

Still, the most serious consideration is not — the 
union of Europe under one power. It is the nature 
of that subjection — the spirit which actuates it — the 
purposes it avows or pursues — and the power which 
shall grasp that dictatorship. 

In the hands of Russia, with all its energies bent 
on the extermination of the intractable spirit of lib- 
erty, and the founding of a perpetual and universal 
despotism, such a power must menace the liberties, 
the safety, the very existence of this government. 

The probabilities of that dictatorship, its threatened 
advent, its incipient organization, have been already 
explained. 

It remains to trace its probable or its possible policy 
towards this republic — when once firmly seated on its 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 351 

European dominion. An adequate motive of policy, 
and a possibility of doing mischief are sufficient to 
put the statesman on his guard against their results: 
for security is the most deadly of dangers, and the 
besetting sin, the fatal poison of democracies. 

Is confidence reposed in the ability of our citizens 
on their own soil if united to repel the invasion of uni- 
ted Europe? That would not shew it to be unwise to 
anticipate and defeat the union rather than encounter 
its matured strength. We might in any direct attack 
maintain our national independence: but that is a 
sad state of affairs when the question at issue is exist- 
ence. When we have satisfied ourselves of our 
ability to repel any open and direct invasion from any 
quarter — we have only proved ourselves impregnable 
against an attack not likely to be made. If we con- 
fide in our distant position, it must be conceded to 
be a serious impediment to direct invasion, a great 
difficulty to be overcome, but by no means a defence 
against ultimate ruin — still less a shelter against 
serious damage. The possibility of a successful 
defence is scarcely an argument against making that 
defence with allies rather than without, a few years 
sooner with powerful auxiliaries rather than a few 
years later alone. Still less is it any fair basis for the 
security of a statesman — that a direct attack openly 
made can be repelled under favorable circumstances. 
It is his high calling to foresee the future and provide 
against the most unpropitious combination, to insure 
the nation against certain evil in great and dangerous 
crises; so to defend it by alliances and by arms that 
the most critical emergencies shall find the nation 



352 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

prepared, not merely to maintain its existence and 
independence, but to repel the most powerful com- 
bination possible without permanent loss, without 
serious injury to its resources — so that it shall not 
come from the conflict scarred, enfeebled, and 
crippled, safe for the present, but languishing and 
ready to fall before the next assault. 

We need anticipate no rash and hasty attempts, 
terrible at the moment — bat sure to recoil on the 
assailant. The work of ruin will be one of art, of 
intrigue, of bribery, of hostile legislation, of worrying 
restrictions and exclusions. This century has seen 
the whole coast of Europe blockaded and neutral 
commerce almost driven from the ocean. With Eu- 
rope under the dictation of a power bent on our 
gradual ruin, exclusion from the continent would be 
a simple, a possible, and an effectual expedient. 

The day of our union and strength would not be 
selected for the onset: but when measures of enfee- 
blement begin to work and shew their workings; 
when domestic discontents spring from outward 
adversity ; when a crowding population feel the 
general hostility, and, in vain seeking employment, 
grasp arms rather than endure starvation; when 
fierce factions dispute the mastery, and nicely bal- 
anced parties quarrel over the spoils; when public 
virtue shall have sunk below its present level and 
men arise who work for gold without inquiring 
whence it comes — these are the times and these 
the crises of danger. They are the things laid up in 
store for us. The forms of democratic government 
admit of no concealment — the quarrels are as open 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 353 

as the unity, the peace, and the love. Interested 
partizans may plead the cause of ruin before the 
people for a fee, yet in colors so specious and with 
tongue so soft that the poison will be instilled and 
working before it is felt or known. There are vital 
questions where a vote will decide the fate of great 
measures. One vote decided the admission of Texas : 
and on it depended war or peace — events which 
might have brought a foreign fleet to New York. 
That vote might have been bribed by a power 
lavish of means and unscrupulous in pursuit of its 
object. An Arnold once already jeoparded our lib- 
erties on small temptation : but temptations may 
assume the shape of virtue. The north is filled 
with the fanatics of liberty, as the south is with the 
Quixotes of slavery. The ground still shakes with 
the shock of their collision. Proud states threatened 
war as the alternative of a refused concession : and 
nothing but mild forbearance and wonderful modera- 
tion dispelled the cloud. The great measures of 
peace were carried by small majorities. In every 
case they were carried by votes consisting of the 
great mass of the south converted into a majority by 
a few votes from the north — where the concession 
was to the south : and by the whole northern vote 
with the addition of a few stragglers from the south, 
where the measure was one demanded by the north. 
The significant fact stands out, that on these sectional 
disputes the great mass of each section adheres to its 
own extremest demands. The balance is turned 
by a small minority of moderate men. The fate of 
the country — union or disunion — peace or war — de- 
45 



354 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

pends on these few. The time may come — and we 
shall be a strange exception to the course of human 
affairs if it do not in fact come — when on some such 
question, that small party of peace may not exist, or 
that balance of power may be held by a Russian 
faction. It was thus that Poland fell : and we are not 
more lofty, more heroic, nor more pure than her 
illustrious patriots. 

But put far from us the supposition of corruption. 
Fanaticism is not less dangerous because it is honest. 
There are fanatics at both ends of this Union. It is a 
fatal error to suppose that the compromise bills have 
laid the infernal spirit of sectional agitation. The 
teterrima causa belli exists, expands, and grows with 
every year. With the increase of the slave interest 
and the slave power does the prize to be defended at 
the south, the iniquity and the oppression to be re- 
moved by the north, increase in importance : and the 
passions of the assault and defence increase in a fear- 
fully greater ratio. The day of final collision is ad- 
journed, it is not gotten rid of. Many years may 
elapse, many partial settlements may postpone an 
open contest: but if the population continue in our 
midst to multiply as it has done, the day must come 
when half measures, palliatives, and compromises 
must cease. Emancipation or disunion may be the 
only alternatives. It is vain to deny that this day 
may be hastened by events from abroad. There 
were recently factious men, neither few nor insignifi- 
cant, who complacently calculated the blessings of an 
English alliance. The resources of the south were 
carefully estimated and ostentatiously paraded. The 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 355 

basis of her prosperity was to be a direct European 
trade; and that could not but hold out temptations 
to a protective alliance after a disunion. But motives 
might well exist to induce foreign aid for the accom- 
plishment of the severance : and we know too much 
of the bitterness of civil factions, the utter alienation 
of feeling engendered by the war of words and inter- 
ests, by the wrongs and retaliations, which precede 
the explosion of domestic hostilities, to entertain any 
doubt as to the possibility of its introduction to sup- 
port the family quarrel. 

When minds are verging to that state of fierce 
excitement, fury ministers and seeks for arms. Men 
may shrink in an hour of coolness from accepting the 
aid of the stranger; but once convinced that they are 
oppressed at home, and foreign aid is a blessing. 
The tender of assistance is greeted as a kindness 
and accepted as a providential resource. The dis- 
contented do not scrutinize the source of the sugges- 
tions which chime in with their feelings, nor see in 
the burning patriot the traitor and the spy of an am- 
bitious power. There have been periods in the 
history of this government when foreign assistance 
would not have been repelled as an insidious insult. 
Had the sword been drawn by South Carolina and 
Mississippi, Russian gold or cannon or ships would not 
have been rejected. There may be discontents 
which, if left free from the inflammations of foreign 
instigation and hopeless of foreign arms, would 
subside. But the inspiration of hope, the prospect 
of success, the certainty of not standing alone, these 
things even in the chivalrous south will deeply and 



356 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

it may be decisively influence the final question of 
peace or war — submission or secession. 

It is unwise to shut the eye to contingencies such 
as these. We may see southern or northern mad- 
men preaching with adverse lungs the glories or 
the iniquities of slavery; or with mutual and bitter 
recriminations exaggerate the aggressions and wrongs 
on southern rights, or the sin of holding souls in 
slavery against the higher law. Each party may — as 
they now do — cast defiance in the teeth of the 
other, scorn and loathe the tolerant republic that 
embraces them both, and cling as to a benefactor 
to any power from abroad which will shield their 
weakness in the day of rebellion. 

Can we suppose that the eagle eye of Russia, tri- 
umphant in Europe, will, for the first time in her 
history, fail to mark such an opportunity ? Will she 
not be swift to poison the wound, to rend wider the 
breach, to madden the hostile sections? When did 
not her vulture scent detect the tainted spot in every 
nation she would make her victim ? And if secure 
against division and attack at home, how ready, lavish, 
and unbounded would be the money, the arms, the 
supplies, which openly or secretly she would pour 
into the bosom of the oppressed, whose merit would 
be their rebellion. Two years have not passed since 
the voice of one man averted a calamity which might 
have even now made this speculation an historical 
fact. Every year only increases the chances of 
some combination of internal discord, servile re- 
bellion, and foreign war, which will make the con- 
tinuance of this republic among the great powers of 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 357 

the world to depend on other elements than her 
power when united, in harmony, to repel a foreign 
foe. Our generation has seen Poland fall before the 
combined power of gold and arms. Our own day 
has seen Hungary shaken by a war of races, instigated 
by an ambition as iniquitous as any assault on our 
own independence could be. We have now in our 
own midst, in full and fierce activity, elements of 
discord greater than either of those which were so 
deadly in the hands of skilful enemies. It is, there- 
fore, the height of madness and of folly to rest our 
safety and to estimate our power on calculations 
which omit these sinister elements. 

Nor are these the only sources of foreign danger. 
We are surrounded by feeble and factious republics — 
the prey of eternal war, delivered over to the hor- 
rors of civil discord, and the very points an ambitious, 
active, and malicious power would seize on, to annoy 
us. The protection of distance is destroyed when 
nations at our door sufficiently numerous and power- 
ful of themselves seriously to harrass if not seriously 
to endanger us, may be stirred up by foreign in- 
trigues, armed by foreign money, led by European 
science. We found the invasion of Mexico no 
child's play: and from it we may estimate how trou- 
blesome would have been her accession to an armed 
league of Europe. 

Through her territory lies our shortest and best 
practicable route to our Pacific states. The pos- 
session of the Tehuantepec, the Panama, the Nicara- 
gua routes is to us what Suez and the Euphrates are to 
England. The wisdom of Congress leaves our con- 



358 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

nections with our western states to depend on the 
strongest naval power. It makes no domestic military 
road, but drives its mails and its troops through a 
foreign territory, over a distant voyage, running the 
gauntlet of every navy which may happen to be 
hostile to us, where every material point is now in 
the hands of great naval powers, or their dependents 
whom intrigue and force can render inimical to us. 
Russia is on our western coast an American power — 
nearer to our possessions than we ourselves — and 
capable of attacking them with superior naval force 
ere we can even hear of the contemplated hostilities. 
Her possessions on our continent now stretch from the 
straits of Behring down to within two degrees of 
Oregon. On the Asiatic side they touch the limits of 
China at a lower latitude. These possessions are not 
treated as distant, outlying, and unimportant districts. 
They have already been the subject of sharp diplo- 
matic discussion, and the basis on the part of Russia 
of a claim so arrogant and insolent that the attempted 
enforcement of it would leave no alternative but dis- 
grace or war. Possessing a portion of the opposite 
coasts of America and Asia of undefined limits — 
occupied at a single point by an insignificant settle- 
ment of Russian adventurers — she expanded her 
claim over the North Pacific and the desolate and 
uninhabited region of North America down to the 
51° of north latitude — where the fishermen of all 
the world had pursued their calling for centuries, 
and the ocean rolled four thousand miles from shore 
to shore. 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 359 

From this vast expanse of land and water the 
ukase of 1821 arrogantly presumed to banish the 
industry and enterprise of the world. 

This rapacious usurpation was defended against 
the remonstrances of President Monroe with charac- 
teristic insolence. The open ocean rolling between 
the shores of Asia and America was treated as a mare 
clausum — the private and peculiar domain of the 
Czar. The exclusion of our citizens was placed on 
the ground of their evil example in stirring up sedi- 
tion among his loyal subjects, and furnishing their 
discontent with arms : and the perpetual hostility of 
the two systems of government was darkly shadowed 
forth in the polite and formal disclaiming of any im- 
putation on the faith of the Republic for her failure 
to suppress such irregularities. 

"The imperial government" — said De Poletica — 
Cl respecting the intentions of the American govern- 
ment, has always abstained from attributing the ill 
success of its remonstrances to any other motives than 
those which flow, if I may be allowed the expression, 
from the very nature of the institutions which govern 
the national affairs of the American Federation! ! '" 

The nature of our institutions is not likely to 
change. This declaration is the formal announce- 
ment that these institutions cannot stand side by 
side in peaceful contact with those of Russia. It 
means that we cannot control our own citizens from 
interfering with our neighbors — not from any acci- 
dental and temporary excitement but — from a disa- 
bility inherent in our system. It proclaims the prin- 
ciple that exclusion is the only method of peace — 



360 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

that commercial intercourse must be restricted to the 
last degree, lest contact with our citizens contaminate 
the docile submissiveness of the Russian slaves. It 
treats American citizens as — South Carolina would 
treat an abolitionist. 

Such reasoning in defence of such an ukase was 
more than our patience could stand. An exchange 
of diplomatic notes ensued, resulting in a treaty adjust- 
ing the existing dispute, but involving the seeds of 
future difficulty. 

The treaty stipulated for the freedom of the Pacific, 
and of resort to its coasts on points not then occupied 
by either nation: but to such points neither party 
should resort unless by permission : and while it pro- 
vided that neither power should make settlements 
beyond the line of 54°, yet the ships of either party 
were allowed during ten years reciprocally to frequent 
the interior seas and harbors on the coast just men- 
tioned for the purpose of fishing or trading with the 
natives. 

The expiration of the ten years was the signal for 
the resumption by Russia of her extreme preten- 
sions — to which a doubt founded on a forced con- 
struction of the last clause of the treaty gave the 
only shadow of a pretext. 

Following the precedents of its encroaching rapa- 
city, the Russian government — in the teeth of the 
stipulation for freedom of access to all points of the 
coast not occupied by Russian settlements — pro- 
hibited our vessels from trading on any portion of 
the unoccupied coasts north of 54° 40'. The last 
clause — which was plainly intended as a temporary 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 361 

suspension of the prohibition of the first clause which 
excluded us from the Russian settlements — was dis- 
torted into a limitation of the general right accorded, 
of landing on any part not actually occupied by a 
settlement. 

Against this assumption our government protest- 
ed — but Russia still pertinaciously declined to yield 
her exclusive pretensions: and any day may bring 
us into collision by her assertion of this unsocial 
claim. Our fishermen pursue their calling in the 
north Pacific and on the north-west coast — by the 
sufferance and at the pleasure of the Czar : — and the 
sword of the Republic is their only security. 

Russia is therefore an American power — the jealous 
neighbor of this Republic — as insolent, aggressive, 
and tenacious as she has always proved herself on the 
opposite continent. 

We cannot escape the conflict by turning our at- 
tention westward, and, abandoning Europe to her 
dictation, indemnify ourselves by engrossing the com- 
merce of eastern Asia. We do not escape, but 
directly encounter her universal and engrossing am- 
bition. 

/ From her Asiatic possessions, from the Kurile and 
fthe Aleutian Islands, she overlooks the natural and 
necessary course of our Asiatic trade — now by the 
occupation of California grown to stupendous magni- 
tude, and soon destined to equal that of the Atlantic 
states. Her naval stations can command effectually 
the whole intercourse of California and Oregon with 
the chief seats of Chinese commerce, and render our 
communications unsecure at any moment. She can 
46 



362 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY 

transfer troops and munitions of war to the coast of 
Oregon more rapidly than we can from the Atlantic 
seaboard. She is a military power in direct contact 
with China; and her influence can stir up the Mongol 
tribes, and pour them like a hail storm on the feeble 
and effeminate Celestials. She can now in a great 
measure balance the influence of England at Pekin; 
her emissaries speak with almost as much authority 
there as at. Constantinople ; and a few years must give 
her the decided predominance. — How that control 
would bear on our commerce with that empire in the 
events which have been indicated, it takes no prophet 
to foretell. We should be excluded from those 
markets, or subjected to burthens which would strip 
off* the profits, impede the activity, and finally destroy 
our Chinese trade — or we should be forced to main- 
tain our position against Russian armies, on the spot, 
across the tracks of Russian navies, and at an ex- 
pense and sacrifice which the most lucrative returns 
would scarcely compensate. / 

Our interests are as directly opposed as our institu- 
tions, policy, and principles. Russia is the great 
wheat country of Europe. To her belong the plains 
of the Vistula and the vast fields which pour their 
produce into the lap of Odessa. From these two 
sources come nearly all the wheat which competes 
with ours in the European market. She is not"a 
manufacturing power and shews no signs of becoming 
such. Her whole population are divided between 
the plough and the sword: and to cut off* or to 
cripple the commerce of the United States, is to rid 
herself of her chief, and only dangerous competitor. 



AND THE RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIP. 363 

Her interest, her ambition, her hate, the principles 
of her Czar, the proud hope of taming Europe to 
the yoke of absolute power, all combine to impel 
her into active hostility against this republic. Her 
territorial possessions, the condition of our neighbors, 
the relations of our own territory, all afford the 
utmost facilities not merely for annoyance, but for 
injury, serious and abiding. She only waits the 
auspicious solution of the European problem, to seize 
the first invitation of internal discord or foreign 
embarrassment, to begin the plot that is to end with 
our ruin. Her peaceful and friendly tone is politic — 
but hollow. She would encounter one enemy at a 
time. She avoids sedulously the roused and com- 
bined wrath of the two great free powers of the 
earth : and she willingly postpones the assault till the 
blow can be fatal, and securely dealt. If she triumph 
in Europe, not many years will roll along ere we 
shall feel the influence of her diplomacy, and be 
called on to encounter her arms. In ordinary war 
she is invulnerable to us, — while we are exposed 
at a thousand points. She can cut off our com- 
merce and fritter away our resources — exempted 
by her position from the evils of retaliation. She 
encounters only half the risks of war — holding in her 
hands the chances of success in attack, the certainty 
of safe and unassailable asylum in retreat after dis- 
comfiture. Like some robber knight, she pounces 
from her den on the honest and exposed way-farer, 
and retreats in safety to her hold ere the arm of 
vengeance can overtake her. 



364 AMERICAN AND ENGLISH LIBERTY. 

It is, then, the part of wisdom and foresight, for 
the free nations of the world — the only two whose 
towers still lift themselves above the flood — to see 
and provide against these threatening calamities now, 
while they are yet at a distance and allies are left, 
rather than to meet them singly after a few years of 
treacherous peace bearing all the fruits of the most 
disastrous war. 



SECTION VIII. 



THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC 



AND THE 



LAST WAR OF FREEDOM AND DESPOTISM. 



THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC 



AND THE 



LAST WAR OF FREEDOM AND DESPOTISM. 



Ihe policy which this Republic should pursue in 
consequence of the recent events in Europe has 
become the subject of vivid discussion and varied 
views. 

I maintain it to be the dictate of high policy, 
when ever the battle shall be joined in earnest in that 
final conflict between freedom and despotism, which 
is unavoidable and may not be remote, to display the 
banner of the Republic in the cause of the rights of 
nations and of man, for our own defence. 

A wise precaution spontaneously suggests the 
opening of diplomatic conferences with England, that 
the two free nations of the world may face together 
their common foe in that day of trial. 

They who stand with their backs to the future and 
their faces to the past, wise only after the event, and 
refusing to believe in dangers they have not felt, 
clamorously invoke the name of Washington in their 
protest against interference in the concerns of Eu- 
rope. With such it is useless to argue — till they 
learn the meaning of the language they repeat. 



368 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

The opinions of a great statesman who on other 
grounds reaches the same conclusion are entitled to 
more respectful consideration. On their side — but 
not of them — rises the majestic form of Henry Clay — 
for forty years accustomed to guide the foreign and 
domestic policy of the republic. His venerable name 
outweighs the arguments of other men. His wide 
experience and practical sagacity give, with the men 
of his day, to his divinations of the future the weight 
of history. His voice also is for peaceful indifference. 
Yet the counsels of his youth were in a different tone. 
His life is now a thing of the past. His country re- 
members that he is passing away. His eye from the 
brink of the grave looks keenly into the future, and 
draws prophetic forebodings of things which shall 
happen when he will not be an actor on the stage. 
The marble shaft will point from the place of his ashes 
to the repose of his soul, long ere she shall summon 
her sons who follow him to deal with the great crisis 
which so deeply concerns them and their posterity. 
They are to be the actors in those scenes of high 
import: theirs will be the terrible duty of treading 
the field where Mars might quake to step : and on 
them will fall, as the penalty of their failure, the frag- 
ments of the crumbling republic — and the curses of 
posterity. They are entitled to decide for themselves 
the questions that concern their political salvation. 

Forgetting the name, it is fit that the judgment 
and the reasons of a great statesman be gravely and 
respectfully considered. 

In the memorable interview with the illustrious 
Hungarian, Mr. Clay — after depicting the difficulties 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 369 

and the futility of military operations by this country 
against Russia — thus expressed himself — 

"Thus, sir, after effecting nothing in such a war, 
after abandoning our ancient policy of amity and non- 
intervention in the affairs of other nations, and thus 
justifying them in abandoning the terms of forbear- 
ance and non-interference which they have hitherto 
preserved towards us — after the downfall perhaps of 
the friends of liberal institutions in Europe — her 
despots, imitating and provoked by our fatal example, 
may turn upon us in our hour of weakness and ex- 
haustion, and, with an almost irresistible force of 
reason and of arms, they may say to us — You have 
set us the example, you have quit your own to stand 
on foreign ground, you have abandoned the policy 
you professed in the day of your weakness, to inter- 
fere in the affairs of the people of this continent, in 
behalf of those principles, the supremacy of which you 
say is necessary to your prosperity, to your existence. 
We, in our turn, believing that your anarchical doc- 
trines are destructive of, and that our monarchical 
principles are essential to the peace, security and hap- 
piness of our subjects, will obliterate the bed which 
has nourished such noxious weeds: we will crush you 
as the propagandists of doctrines so destructive to the 
peace and good order of the world. The indomitable 
spirit of our people might, and would be equal to the 
emergency, and we might remain unsubdued even 
by so tremendous a combination — but the conse- 
quences to us would be terrible enough." 

This solemn and parting opinion is worthy of the 
most profound and respectful consideration. He 
47 



370 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

spoke to a great leader in a great but unfortunate 
struggle : and he spoke on a topic of practical mo- 
ment to his country. The solemn tone which per- 
vades his remarks bespeaks no light and transient 
topic of indifferent interest, but one which might in 
its decision involve the peace, the happiness, the 
very being of the Republic. 

The terrible power of a combination of European 
despots against our liberties was keenly felt. He 
indulged no boastful confidence of impunity: nor 
could the leader in the war with England so far 
forget his experience as to speak lightly of a collision 
with a league mightier far than that power, detach- 
ments of whose navy dealt us such stunning blows. 
The greatness of the danger was felt and admitted. 
The problem was, how to avoid or how to repel it. 

He does not treat such a combination as a chi- 
merical terror — but as a real substantial danger, fully 
within the range of political calculation. He only 
contemplates it as a retribution for our armed inter- 
meddling in European affairs. His only refuge from 
its power is in "the indomitable spirit of our people," 
which, he thinks, "might and would be equal to the 
emergency." And after the passage of the storm, 
his eye looks on the ruins in its track, and confesses 
that " we might remain unsubdued even by so tre- 
mendous a combination — but the consequences to us 
would be terrible enough" — even in our victory. 

But there are some serious omissions and some 
inadmissible assumptions which require to be noticed. 

If the combination be so dangerous when directed 
against our united strength, it must be overwhelming 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 371 

in the day of our factious division, or of civil discord, 
or servile rebellion. 

If this combination be possible, and if despots 
triumphant in Europe could have any inducement to 
turn their arms against us, we are not entitled to sup- 
pose a pretext will ever be wanting. The induce- 
ments will not be those of a just retaliation. To sup- 
pose that immunity is to be purchased by peace — is 
entirely to forget the history of the last thirty years. 
If it is to shut the eye to the motives of aggression 
and the fruits of victory. If attack followed only as 
retaliation, then peace might be safety; but if the 
war be waged against liberty and its pleading ex- 
ample, then peace is the surest provocation. The 
assumption that if we let them alone they will let us 
alone is belied by the whole history of Europe in 
this century. It vitiates the whole reasoning. It 
was faith in this which cost Spain her constitution. 
It was trust in that rotten reed which pierced Hun- 
gary through with many sorrows. It is this faith 
which made every revolution of modern Europe — 
except that Great Deliverance which put faith only 
in its sword — the grave of its authors. It is a blind 
faith, involving deadly error — and utterly oblivious 
of the events of our own day. 

In no one instance in the nineteenth century has 
the free movement been arrested by armed interven- 
tion as a penalty for its meddlesome aggression. 
Moderation, abstinence from revolutionary excesses 
at home, rigid refusal of armed propagation abroad, 
even the denial of all sympathy and countenance to 
the revolutionary disturbances existing in neighboring 



372 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

countries, have never in a single instance proved a 
protection : — but that policy has always been the pre- 
cursor of ruin, the invitation to attack. 

The coalition against revolutionary France was 
formed before she had meddled with other nations : 
and always under pretexts which left rational liberty 
free play. Her propaganda was a retaliation — con- 
verted by her enemies into a crime, and elevated to 
the chief dignity among the causes of their hostility. 
Spain did not seek to propagate her liberal ideas: 
yet her innocence was no protection. France exe- 
cuted a traitor who wore her crown; and despots 
yelled with madness at the sight. Spain left a viler 
tyrant untouched: yet they rushed on and over- 
whelmed her. The coalition turned pale at the blood 
of the reign of terror. Spain kept her hands un- 
spotted with blood : yet the Holy Allies imitated and 
surpassed those cruel days in their triumph. The 
constitution of Louis XVI. had been tolerated: the 
Spanish Cortes therefore indulged the hope that 
theirs would not be assailed — if they refrained from 
exciting the revolutionary spirit by appeals, or dis- 
turbing their neighbor's peace by invasion, or imbru- 
ing their hands in blood at home. They did none of 
these things, and they trusted in their purity for their 
protection. But in the eyes of the Holy Allies they 
were miserable sinners — rebels against the divine 
right of despotism : and they paid the penalty of their 
confidence. Naples trusted in a similar purity — 
even more inoffensive : she refrained from appealing 
to all Italy in the name of liberty, till it was too late : 
and her infant freedom was set on and vilely done 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 373 

to death. Hungary tried to wash her hands in 
innocency — and met the fate of her predecessors. 
Her constitution was of old — outdating the house of 
her kings. Her reforms were the legal process of 
this constitution, conceded by her sovereign freely 
and without any sort of coercion, tumult, or clamor. 
She dared to take arms to defend herself against his 
usurpations, clear and confessed. She made no new 
claims, she foolishly abstained from revolutionary 
sympathies, she anxiously kept away from the tempt- 
ing and decisive field of Polish agitation. Yet she 
was stricken down : for she had asserted a right in 
the nation against the sovereign. 

If we are to provide against a danger, we must 
estimate its character, the law of its motion, the orbit 
of its course, as well as its magnitude, and the spirit 
of the power which presides over its activity. Its 
professions are of no worth. Its acts are alone trust- 
worthy. 

If the Holy Allies have hitherto not confined their 
assaults to retaliation, it is a baseless assumption to 
suppose they will do so in future. They have, 
always, whenever and wherever the right of the 
people to control their own affairs has been asserted 
as a practical principle, under all circumstances, under 
every ^pretext, so far as their power has extended, 
armed for its overthrow. The object of their hos- 
tility is — the source of their danger: — and that is — 
not any particular form of liberty, not its origin in 
revolutionary violence, not its active and armed 
propagation, but — liberty simply in itself and for 
itself — in its own inherent nature their enemy — a 



374 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

propagandist principle by the necessity of its being — 
one that shines by its own light and spreads in spite 
of laws and barriers and limits. Its existence is the 
danger: its extinction is the only safety. 

The sin and the danger therefore of this Republic 
are — its freedom, the silent and powerful influence of 
its example, that its name is the watchword, its light 
the hope of the millions of Europe. It is not harm- 
less because it is peaceful ; it is for that very reason 
more potent in its influence. Its pure light would 
be obscured by the clouds of war. Its peacefulness 
makes it more worthy of extinction. 

Mr. Clay glories in the power of the example; 
but he fails to draw the inference it involves. 

He says "by the policy of Washington we have 
done more for the cause of liberty in the world 
than arms could effect: we have shown to other 
nations the way to greatness and happiness. And if 
we continue united as one people and persevere in 
the policy which our experience has so clearly and 
triumphantly vindicated we may in another quarter of 
a century furnish an example which the reason of 
the world cannot resist." 

But if this policy have done more for the cause of 
liberty than arms could effect, then to persevere in this 
policy is the surest way to bring down on' us the 
enemies of the liberty it has promoted. If in a 
quarter of a century our example, if unmolested, is to 
; triumph over the reason of the world — and that tri- 
umph involve the triumph of liberty over despotism — 
then the despotic powers will anticipate their destruc- 
tion by our ruin. They will not leave us that quarter 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 375 

of a century of deadly example. They will — on Mr. 
Clay's reasoning — at the expiration of that time, in- 
evitably fall victims to our example. They would be 
pusillanimous if they sat down in despair rather 
than try the fate of arms, when failure would only 
impose the inevitable penalty of inactivity, while 
success would relieve them forever of the evil — the 
hateful unquiet spirit of liberty. If peaceful ex- 
ample be the most influential advocacy of liberty, 
it is therefore the surest way to invoke on our heads 
the hatred and the hostilities of the enemies of 
liberty. It were curious indeed to tolerate the greater 
and only to war upon the less of the two dangers. 
If our union as one people be so dangerous, the des- 
potic powers will avail themselves of every art of 
fraud or force to dissolve that union. If the peaceful 
example be more dangerous than arms, they will ob- 
scure it by clouds of war. If the reason of the 
world cannot resist it, they will not wait for it to be 
convinced, but will protect it from our influence by 
the bayonet unreasoning and unconvincible. It is a 
bitter mockery to show people the way to great- 
ness and happiness only that in the pursuit of it they 
may find a grave. Men will curse the example 
which lures them into rebellion, and looks idly on till 
it be extinguished in blood. Kings, radiant with 
triumph over the effects of our example, will eagerly 
turn to rid themselves of the fruitful cause. When 
order reigns in Europe, its restorers will not be wise 
as serpents if they do not visit their wrath on the 
cause of the disturbances. It is iniquitous — nay 
more — it is a blunder to punish the deceived and 



376 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

misled enthusiast, and leave the corrupter and the 
instigator to go unscathed. To despots, liberty is 
itself an evil example, fruitful in all political disorders : 
they will persecute and punish it and root it out — as 
they would any other contagion. The Republic of 
America is the embodiment of that spirit in its most 
deadly form. Its peaceful example is its deadliest/ 
sin. Its demerit is its existence. Its only safety is 
in arms ; and refusal to use them is no protection 
against them. To stand still and see despots root out 
freedom from Europe — is — not to avoid war, but — 
only to wait till our allies fall that we may be an easy 
prey. I do not greatly value the Ulyssean privilege 
of being last devoured. 

If therefore it be possible so to aid the cause of 
European freedom that it may be crowned with 
success and grasp the sceptre of rule — it is the 
plainest dictate of sound policy, quite level to the 
comprehension of common sense, to let no opportu- 
nity slip, effectually, earnestly, boldly, at whatever 
expense of men or money, to secure its triumph 
as the best and only safe defence of our security. 
Though the stars and stripes float on a thousand 
fields of Europe, we shall incur no more hate, no 
more danger, no greater certainty of that " tremendous 
combination," than now hang over us as the inevitable 
consequence of the final triumph of despotism in 
Europe. The policy of indifference is the only fatal 
one ; the leaving our own to stand on foreign ground 
is merely meeting the invader at his own thresh- 
hold — and it is our only safety. — 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 377 

Henry Clay declares this contrary to the policy 
of President Washington — the hereditary national 
policy ; and his voice is multiplied by echoes from 
every quarter of heaven. But is this not putting in 
the mouth of the illustrious statesman and warrior 
principles which he never expressed, and which he 
would be the first to repudiate and abandon? — 

I do not hesitate to assert, that no word of Wash- 
ington indicates any such policy as has been imputed 
to him ; but on the contrary the policy here advocated 
is the hereditary policy of this government applied 
to every new practical case as it arose; and that it is 
in conflict neither with the letter nor with the spirit 
of the advice of that sagacious statesman. That 
policy is declared in the following passages of his 
farewell Address. I adhere to every word of them. 

"The great rule for us in regard to foreign nations 
is, in extending our commercial relations, to have 
with them as little political connexion as possible. So 
far as we have already formed engagements let them 
be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. 

"Europe has a set of primary interests which to us 
have none or a very remote relation. Hence she 
must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes 
of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. 
Hence therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate 
ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes 
of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and col- 
lisions of her friendships or enmities. 

"Our detached and distant situation invites and 
enables us to pursue a different course. If we re- 
main one people under an efficient government, the 
48 



378 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

period is not far off when we may defy material in- 
jury from external annoyance; when we may take 
such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may 
at any time resolve upon, to be scrupulously re- 
spected; when belligerent nations, under the impos- 
sibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly 
hazard the giving us provocation; when we may 
choose peace or war as our interests guided by justice 
shall counsel. 

"Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situa- 
tion? Why quit our own to stand on foreign ground? 
Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any 
part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in 
the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, 
humor or caprice? 

" It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent 
alliances with any portion of the foreign world, so 
far I mean as we are now at liberty to do it; for let 
me not be understood as capable of patronising infi- 
delity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no 
less applicable to public than to private affairs that 
honesty is always the best policy. I repeat therefore 
let those engagements be observed in their genuine 
sense. But in my opinion it is unnecessary and 
would be unwise to extend them. 

" Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable 
establishments on a respectable defensive posture we 
may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordi- 
nary emergencies." 

It is not a little difficult to trace the connection 
between the text of Washington and the interpreta- 
tion of his commentators. The policy he recom- 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 379 

mends is that of a great man : it has been expounded 
into the folly of children. The sagacity of the advice 
is not more remarkable in its appreciation of the 
advantages of our peculiar position, than in the care- 
ful and precise limitations of the extent and nature 
of those advantages. 

When he warned us against "permanent alliances" 
he was careful to assure us that we might safely trust 
to "temporary alliances" for extraordinary emergen- 
cies. He felt the galling shackles of the French 
treaty of 1778 which bound the United States for 
ever to guarantee her American possessions, and 
threatened daily to endanger our peaceful relations 
with all the world by the restless caprices of her 
ambition; and he justly thought it unwise to multi- 
ply such entanglements. 

But he felt no superstitious horror of alliances with 
European powers for the declaration of principles 
of commercial or political intercourse in which we 
had an interest, and for their maintenance by arms 
when assailed in the persons of either of the parties. 

The mission of Mr. Jay to London was for the 
purpose of procuring the recognition by England 
of certain great principles of maritime law for the 
protection of neutral commerce against the impartial 
outrages of the parties to the furious war that then 
desolated the world. But if England refused to stay 
her robber hand, Washington had no scruples against 
an alliance to compel her. The armed neutrality of 
1780 between Russia, Denmark, and Sweden em- 
bodied the most essential of those principles, and 
bound the parties with united forces to punish their 



380 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

violation in the person of either. President Washing- 
ton contemplated acceding to it. His instructions to 
Mr. Jay were — "You will have no difficulty in 
gaining access to the ministers of Russia, Denmark 
and Sweden, at the court of London. The prin- 
ciples of the armed neutrality would abundantly 
cover our neutral rights. If, therefore, the situation 
of things with respect to Great Britain should dic- 
tate the necessity of taking the precaution of foreign 
co-operation upon this head, if no prospect of accom- 
modation should be thwarted by the danger of such 
a measure being known to the British cabinet, and 
an entire view of all our political relations shall in 
your judgment permit the step, you will sound those 
ministers upon the probability of an alliance with their 
nations to support those principles." 

Washington contemplated an alliance, not to re- 
dress past grievances, but to repel future encroach- 
ments, to maintain principles of intercourse new to 
Europe, to compel their incorporation in her public 
law. He thus directly contemplated pledging our 
arms to European powers, to meet the "extraordi- 
nary emergencies" of his day, under stipulations 
which would have required us to defend the com- 
merce of Russia against the aggression of France. 
He did so, because we were interested in maintaining 
the same principles which Russia, Sweden, and 
Denmark had united to defend ; we could not defend 
them alone : and we could obtain their aid only by 
tendering them our support. 

This case suffices to rescue the statesmanship of 
President Washington from the eulogies of his 
commentators. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 381 

Our great rule has undoubtedly been, while extend- 
ing our commercial relations, to have "as little politi- 
cal connexion as possible" with other nations. But 
Washington did not contemplate the possibility of 
exemption from all political connexions. Nor are 
we to suppose that by "as little as possible" he 
meant us to judge of what was possible by any meta- 
physical measure of possibility. He designated no 
Japanese policy of political isolation — for he knew it 
to be impossible. He was not talking at random of 
Utopian seclusion, nor advising either a selfish aban- 
donment of the duties, or the cowardly retreat from 
the responsibilities of civilized nations. He was 
careful to reduce his meaning to certainty — by point- 
ing to the object expressed by his language. 

"Europe" — he says — "has a set of primary inter- 
ests, which to us have none or a very remote relation. 
Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies 
the causes of which are essentially foreign to our 
concerns." 

From this he does not reason against our having 
any interest in the controversies of European nations. 
He does not hint that there may not arise combina- 
tions among them in which it may be important for 
us to join. He is careful to guard against any such 
folly. He only says, "Hence therefore, it must be 
unwise in us — to implicate ourselves by artificial ties 
in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordi- 
nary combinations and collisions of her friendships or 
enmities." 

When these words w r ere published to the world on 
the 17th of September 1796, George Washington 



382 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

had for more than forty years been an actor of history 
in no mean part. His country had been a colony of 
a great European power, ambitious, active, and 
grasping — mingling in every struggle — and dragging 
her colonies with her into the vortex. In these wars 
Washington developed his youthful genius. He was 
not ignorant of their origin and causes. He knew 
what had passed on the theatre of Europe within his 
century, before he was in existence or called into 
active life. With the result of these events he was 
called to deal: and their relation to his country was 
the point of view in which he was required to 
regard them. On them his eye was turned when he 
spoke of "primary interests" of European states 
having only a remote relation to us, and of those 
"ordinary vicissitudes of her politics," and "ordinary 
combinations" of friendships and enmities, with 
which he pronounced it unwise to implicate ourselves 
by artificial tics. The eighteenth century from its 
commencement to its close was one unbroken series 
of those "ordinary combinations" relative to those 
primary interests, in which we could not for the fu- 
ture have any sort of interest. 

The great wars of opinion which sprung from the 
reformation had burnt out before the middle of the 
seventeenth century; and the treaty of Westphalia 
settled the balance of power and the public law of 
Europe. 

The eighteenth century opened with the war of 
the Spanish succession — a fierce contest of high 
ambition and high policy between Austria, France, 
and England, for the possession or partition of the 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 383 

Spanish monarchy. It was important to England, 
that France should not be unduly aggrandised. It 
was important for France to exclude the house of 
Austria from the possessions of Spain. But to this 
Republic, as an independent power, such interests — 
primary to France, Austria, and England — had 
"none or a very remote relation." No principle 
was involved or asserted which would have extended 
to us; nor was there any imminent danger of the 
absolute subjection of all Europe to any one power — 
however inconvenient to England or Austria might 
be the possession of the Spanish monarchy entire, by 
a prince of France. The treaty of Utrecht of 1713 
settled the territorial partition of Europe, and di- 
vided the spoils of Spain. 

The second war of the eighteenth century, was that 
of the Austrian succession — a heartless, spiritless, de- 
spicable attempt to wrest from a woman the inherit- 
ance of her father, secured by solemn treaties, and 
guaranteed by every power which drew a sword in 
the unholy contest. To the United States, it would 
have been absolutely unimportant whether Maria 
Theresa maintained the integrity of her dominions, 
or Charles, Elector of Bavaria stripped her of half her 
dominions, or Frederick of Prussia robbed her of 
Silesia, on lying pretexts. The flames of war spread 
round the world, blazed fiercely on the confines of 
Hindoostan, and lighted the forests and the lakes of 
America; but the issue was the integrity of the 
Austrian dominions, invaded and depredated on by 
crowned freebooters. This was a "primary interest" 
to Prussia, to France, to Bavaria, to England, to 



384 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

Austria; but to this Republic it could bear no relation 
or a very remote one only. The treaty of Aix la 
Chapelle of 1748 interposed a truce and a breathing 
spell between the war of the succession, and its 
offspring — the war of the seven years. 

Maria Theresa meditated revenge on the despoiler 
of Silesia, and nursed her wrath till the day of 
vengeance. She stirred up all Europe to arms in 
her cause. The hate of Elizabeth and the hereditary 
policy of Russia, Saxony, bought with promises of 
rich spoils, France, inveigled by the arts of Pompa- 
dour from her ancient policy — all conspired to crush 
the king, whose arms or tongue or pen had wounded 
the vanity or humbled the pride of half the kings 
and queens of Christendom. But, however important 
to Europe, surely to us it could be of no moment 
whether Silesia belonged to Frederick, or Maria 
Theresa blotted his kingdom from the map of 
Europe. It was one of the " ordinary combinations 
and collisions of her friendships and enmities," in 
which only the most artificial ties could possibly 
implicate us. 

Though it spread from Germany to India and 
America, and the supremacy of English arms and 
policy expanded her commercial empire to the ends 
of the earth, it still remained a war about European 
interests, and one foreign to our concerns. Americans 
bled to plant the banner of England on Quebec and 
to wipe out from her escutcheon the stain of Brad- 
dock's defeat — in a war for a German principality. 
But at the date of the Address, all Europe was 
wrapped in the smoke of a war of stupendous mag- 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 385 

nitude — and which history has shewn to have been 
pregnant with consequences of vital moment to us. 
At its outbreak. President Washington led the policy 
of this country. In the midst of no small vituperation 
and clamor he proclaimed and maintained our neutrali- 
ty. The advocates of peaceful indifference invoke this 
proclamation as an exemplification of the principles of 
the Address. They strenuously argue that it was the 
war of despots against liberty — equally dangerous to 
us as any since existing: and, therefore, the example 
of Washington has declared that even the tremendous 
combination of European despots against the freedom 
of the world is no exception to his warning against 
intermeddling in European concerns. That is the 
strongest statement the argument will bear. 

It is unfortunate that it derives its plausibility from 
considering the events of the war in 1796 in the light 
of its future progress; in giving a meaning to those 
events which it took fifty years to develope, but 
which they then did not import : and in utterly for- 
getting the condition of this country, and the reasons 
for that neutrality which, even under those circum- 
stances, Washington declared to have been predomi- 
nant in causing its adoption. 

We were then a people of only three millions — 
sparsely scattered over the seaboard from Maine to 
Georgia — with no army which could be felt in an 
European contest — with no fleet adequate to protect 
our neutral commerce from daily depredations by 
both belligerents — and utterly powerless in a war 
against the English fleets which swept those of 
France and Spain from the ocean. Our armed in- 
49 



386 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

tervention would then have been fruitless to our ally — 
ruinous to ourselves. Our commerce would have 
been driven from the ocean and our seaports laid in 
ashes — for the barren honor of proclaiming ourselves 
the friends of liberty. 

Our constitution of government was not seven 
years old. The country still resounded with the 
debate between its friends and opponents: and the 
very question of peace or war took the line which 
divided those constitutional combatants. To plunge 
into the war must sharpen the hostility and embitter 
the contest of these factions: and the recoil of our 
own attack might have prostrated our own constitu- 
tion in the Quixotic effort to aid another people 
more able to help themselves. 

These motives pressed on President Washington : 
and he declares in his address when referring to 
his neutrality — "with me ; a predominant motive has 
been to endeavor to gain time to our country to settle 
and mature its yet recent institutions, and to progress 
without interruption to that degree of strength and 
constancy which is necessary to give it, humanly 
speaking, the command of its own fortune." 

Has not this country reached that point nowl 

These reasons would haye sufficed to vindicate the 
neutrality in the French revolutionary wars at the 
time of his administration— even had the Holy Alli- 
ance then existed in full vigor, pursuing with high- 
handed audacity the extermination of liberty from 
the world, and illustrating their principles by such 
deeds as the Spanish, the Neapolitan, the Hungarian 
assassinations. 






AND THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 387 

But that was not either the avowed, the pretended, 
or the real cause of the war at the date of the Ad- 
dress. The right to dictate a constitution to France 
was only like any other illegal outrage — it could be 
repeated any where : but there was no reason for its 
extension : and the pretexts and the real objects of 
the war, the avowals and the acts of the parties up to 
the date of the Address, developed no marked dis- 
tinction between this war and all those which had 
filled the earlier part of the century. It did not 
appear to be one which immediately or even re- 
motely threatened our security. 

Louis XVI. had convoked the States General. 
That body felt the wants of the times, and presented 
a constitution to the King, which he sanctioned and 
swore to observe. He was weak and insincere in 
the presence of ambitious and desperate factions 
which he could neither control nor conciliate. They 
encroached on his constitutional prerogatives. He 
was imbued with the monarchical idea of the nullity 
of royal promises — and not unnaturally sought foreign 
help. Austria and Prussia negotiated treaties for his 
protection, and prescribed to the people of France 
the terms of accommodation. Outraged at this in- 
solence, and eager to bring the matter to an issue, 
the Assembly compelled the King to declare war 
against the allies: and then justly suspicious of his 
sincerity, and feeling the impossibility of his con- 
ducting with vigor a war waged by their enemies for 
his liberation, they imprisoned, deposed, and finally 
executed him. Up to this point the war had been 
professedly for the liberty and safety of the King, 



388 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

and the restoration of a constitution more free and 
liberal than that of England. It was doubtless a gross 
insult to France to dictate her government. It was 
a gross outrage on the law of nations to enforce the 
dictation by arms. But it was a question of Euro- 
pean interest only. 

The French retaliated the insolent demand by pro- 
claiming the rights of man at the head of her legions, 
and organizing revolutionary republics wherever she 
pitched her camps. But this was not the object of the 
war : it was merely one of the means and weapons for 
waging it. The French republic became an armed 
propagandist forcing liberty on reluctant millions as a 
fitting reply to the effort to force on France a consti- 
tution she repudiated and a king she knew to be a 
traitor. It remained a question of European politics. 

The death of the king in 1793 was the occasion 
for the accession of England and Russia to the coa- 
lition. They disavowed any intention of imposing 
any government on France. They only deprecated 
her aggressive policy, the rebellion she preached and 
supported, the anarchy that she suffered and propa- 
gated. They professed their willingness to make 
peace whenever any stable and responsible govern- 
ment should be installed. They renounced all ideas 
of conquest. England, the only free constitutional 
government was armed against France; the war was 
not therefore one directed against all free institutions. 
All parties would gladly have acquiesced in the con- 
stitution sworn to by the king. The revolutionary 
madness was the object of their terror, their hate, 
and their hostility. They considered it a temporary 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 389 

madness. They did not aim at the freedom which 
animated it — but the fanatical and cruel phrenzy 
which deluged the world in blood in the holy name 
of liberty. Such were the pretexts — justified by the 
apparent facts — beneath which the allied powers dis- 
guised their ambitious projects. 

Their real object was conquest. In less than a 
month the proclamation of moderation was with- 
drawn — conquests made were claimed in France for 
Austria — England detached her troops for the de- 
struction of Dunkirk — and while Austria strove to dis- 
member France, Russia did dismember Poland. The 
crusade for the safety of kings and the suppression of 
an ambitious faction was converted into an alliance to 
plunder France of her territory. It had sunk to the 
level of a war of aggression and conquest on the one 
side, as it w T as charged to be on the other. France 
waged a war with ideas as well as with arms; but 
they were the mere instruments for the conduct of 
the war — not avowedly nor apparently its causes or 
its objects. 

People might well doubt if that w r ere liberty 
which in its name defiled itself with innocent blood, 
mocked at the religion of the world, and denied 
the God of Heaven; which Burke the friend of 
America execrated, and England the only free 
power of Europe could be prevailed on to attack. 
It was liberty — but in its maddest and least amiable 
mood, goaded to phrenzy by persecution, and wield- 
ing the maniac's might for defence. Washington 
followed the struggle with his prayers. But he 



390 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

feared its fiery contact quite as much as he depre- 
cated its fall before the arms of the coalition. 

Nor was the balance of fortune so decided as to 
leave open any very serious apprehensions of any 
great change in the relative power of nations. The 
campaign of 1793 terminated by the rout of France 
at the camp of Caesar. The campaign of 1794 saw 
the allies driven over the Rhine. The close of 1795, 
after various changes of fortune, left the contend- 
ing armies marshalled on the Rhine — in balanced 
power. Spain and Prussia had withdrawn from the 
contest. England and Austria were no more than a 
match for France. Russia was digesting her Polish 
spoliations. 

The campaign of 1796 opened brilliantly for the 
Republic. Moreau and Jourdan carried terror into 
the centre of Germany and threatened to form the 
coveted connection with the army of Italy. But the 
fate of war drove them to the Rhine while Napoleon 
was crushing the successive armies which Austria 
poured into Italy — that nothing might be wanting to 
elevate his victories into miracles. Moreau and Jour- 
dan were beaten before the address was written; and 
Napoleon was yet between Lodi and Jlrcola when it 
was published. 

The war up to the day of the address was a war 
about European interests. It was an outrage on the 
independence of France — but she was more than 
able to protect herself. It was waged under false 
pretexts for ambitious ends — but the pretexts had 
more of justification than those under which Fred- 
erick seized Silesia and Russia divided Poland. 



AND THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 391 

The coalition was formidable — but incomparably infe- 
rior in relative powers and actual conduct to that 
which in the seven years war menaced the existence 
of Prussia. 

The sovereigns of Europe felt a deep sympathy 
for their cousin. They sought to quiet internal dis- 
contents or to prevent revolutionary agitations, by 
extinguishing the portentous conflagration which 
raged in France. They felt and treated it as a 
temporary fury — dangerous if left unchained, but 
not as necessarily connected with the idea or the 
reality of constitutional liberty, nor inconsistent with 
the forms of monarchical government. They were not 
then aware of the ultimate and irreconcilable hostility 
between liberty and despotism. The incompatibility 
was not yet developed so as to sink into their minds 
as a principle. They did not yet attack it on prin- 
ciple, from policy, in every phase, regardless of place 
and time and origin and duration. They professed 
to be the friends of reasonable, well balanced, consti- 
tutional liberty. It was the fashion of the age in 
courts, in the salons, in the schools. 

Its fortune was that of early Christianity. It was a 
novelty — and that attracted. Its searching pene- 
trating exclusive power and pretensions w r ere un- 
known or unheeded. It was hated by a few bigots. 
It was admired by philosophic curiosity, or tolerated 
by philosophic disdain. It was left to herd with the 
superstitions that swarmed over the Empire. Its 
purity and simplicity even attracted Imperial notice; 
and the statue of Christ shared with those of Abra- 
ham, Apollonius, and Orpheus, the imperial devotions. 



392 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

Its tenets were permitted to spread in obscurity and 
almost without opposition. But when it shrank with 
horror from the profane contact of idolatry, pro- 
claimed the purity of its principles as the imperative 
rule of life, and anathematised as iniquity what the 
law called religion — asserting exclusive empire where 
it was only tolerated as an associate, and commanding 
obedience to the curious and idle enquirer, whose 
pleasant vices it denounced — it was then that Im- 
perial despotism united with 'private bigotry, by fire 
and sword, the wild beast and the torturing rack, to 
exterminate a spirit whose existence was felt to be 
incompatible with the " existing order" of the Roman 
world. 

So it was with modern despots and the spirit of 
liberty. It took thirty years of war and rebellion, 
of concession and of retraction, to impress the dullness 
of royal minds with the incompatibility of popular 
power and monarchical absolutism. They were long 
in learning that popular power involved popular 
sovereignty : and that there could not be two sove- 
reignties in the same state. They were then forced 
to choose between the retention or the surrender of 
their absolute power. Any recognition of popular 
power involved by inevitable sequence their subordi- 
nation : they were driven, therefore, to deny all par- 
ticipation to the people in affairs of government, and 
to war down every effort to obtain it. They then 
saw that liberty worked by example, and was as 
dangerous when peacefully operating in a neighbor- 
ing state as if it were in their own. They therefore 
consistently associated themselves to extinguish it in 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 393 

every place whence its light could shine into their 
darkened realms. This was not the case at the date 
of the address. It is a new thing in the world. It is 
the peculiar product of the nineteenth century. It has 
given a significance to the liberal cause and its con- 
test with despotism which it never had before — and 
which takes it from the category of those "primary 
interests" of Europe which have no relation to us. 

The combination for the suppression of liberty is 
not an ordinary combination of her politics, or an 
ordinary combination of her friendships and enmities. 
It is a novel, extraordinary, and dangerous conspiracy 
to suppress liberty as dangerous to despotic power 
and utterly incompatible with its quiet existence. 

It requires no "artificial ties" to implicate ourselves 
with the fate of the free nations of Europe. Our 
fate is bound up with theirs. Their fall removes the 
only hindrance to our fall. The principle of the 
conspiracy, the consistency of the policy, the influence 
of this Republic, the impossibility of quiet to despot- 
ism so long as it exists, all unite to compel the des- 
potic powers to elect between our ruin and their own. 

To seize the first opportunity by suitable alliances to 
meet and overthrow them, to divide their power, to 
substitute free for despotic governments, to support by 
money and arms nations which by our aid with that 
of England can maintain themselves, is therefore the 
plainest dictate of common sense. Washington would 
have been the first to see and provide for the coming 
storm. If he could not avoid it, he would have has- 
tened to dispel it ere it reached maturity. He would 
not have been so simple as to call alliances for such a 
50 



394 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

purpose " leaving our own to stand on foreign 
ground." He would rather have said, it is leaving 
our own that we may meet and repel our foes from 
the sacred home of our liberties. He would not 
have called this the "entangling our peace in the 
toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor 
or caprice." He meant those words for such wars y 
/ as filled the eighteenth century. 

For emergencies such as the events of the last thirty 
years have developed, he would have been the last 
to recommend a temporising policy. The last day 
of weakness would have been the last of inactivity. 
He would have seen in the steady march of despotic 
power from east to west in its unholy crusade against 
liberty the foreshadowing of a terrible day which 
procrastination might hasten, but could never shun. 
He would have regarded the advent of 1848 and the 
great crisis it developed as a blessed opportunity 
which Providence might not repeat. He would 
have considered the adjournment of our fate as a 
deadly artifice, which secured easy success by a 
little patience. He would have seen in the triumph 
of the despotic powers all over Europe, and in the 
events now there transpiring, one of those "ex- 
traordinary emergencies" which his knowledge of 
human affairs led him to foresee must arise. " We 
may safely trust to temporary alliances for ex- 
traordinary emergencies" are the words which indicate 
his policy in such contingencies. He would not let 
a day pass without entering on negotiations with 
England to meet and provide for events which are 
on the wing — and which this generation may see 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 395 

face to face, involving the integrity, the very existence 
of the Republic. 

The policy of Washington in the hands of its re- 
cent interpreters has come to mean a short-sighted 
indifference to external events if they happen to 
occur at a distance, blindly disregarding their char- 
acter and their necessary consequences. His policy 
is made to mean — indifference to every thing occur- 
ring beyond the American continent not inflicting 
some direct and tangible injury on us. 

That great man measured his policy by other rules. 
Distance was only one element of his calculation. 
The event, its meaning, and its consequences were 
what he regarded. Whether near or remote, he was 
ready to meet and ward off danger by any alliances 
which would answer the purpose. He had no 
horror of mingling in European contests: he merely 
said the system of permanent alliances with any 
power was an evil one, and that meddling in the 
ordinary combinations of European politics relating 
to interests primary to her but remotely related to 
us, was unwise. But he never advised indiffer- 
ence to the machinations and the arms of a coalition 
of European despots of great magnitude, permanence, 
and power — on a principle which involves our gov- 
ernment peculiarly — and hitherto so victorious that 
all Europe is now subject to its will. 

On the contrary, the first steps of that iniquitous 
alliance mis-called the Holy attracted the attention, 
excited the fears, and elicited the most emphatic pro- 
test of President Monroe. His declaration has ever 
been regarded as the basis of our foreign policy. 



396 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

That declaration rests on the wisest principles of 
statesmanship, which anticipates and meets danger in 
the distance. It was never reputed a departure from 
the policy of President Washington; yet it is as far 
removed as heaven and earth from the puerile 
trifling put into the mouth of that great man by 
his expounders. — 

That declaration flowed from the independence of 
the Spanish provinces — and the dangers which 
threatened them. 

Prior to the Spanish revolution, the Holy Allies 
had offered Ferdinand "an amicable intervention to 
restore for him — on solid bases — the authority of the 
mother country." The Neapolitan expedition was 
the best exposition of their interpretation of amica- 
ble; nor could they have expected that repub- 
lics in arms would yield to persuasion after having 
repelled force. The "fatal example" of the revo- 
lution at home strengthened the hands of the revolted 
colonies; and the Allies postponed their reduction 
till they had restored despotic power to the throne ol 
Spain. 

But the independence of the colonies totally altered 
our relations to them. We hastened to acknowledge 
them, to form treaties of commerce with them, to 
open the freest and most intimate intercourse with 
them. We hailed the blessed vision of freedom and 
peace which their success seemed to assure. We 
rejoiced that our borders were freed from the dan- 
gerous contact with the vassal colonies of despotic 
powers; and we indulged few scruples as to the 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 397 

measures we should take to prevent their reduction 
by foreign force. 

The triumphs of the Allies in Spain was the natural 
precursor of the resumption of their postponed but 
not abandoned interference in South America. It 
was natural that Ferdinand, restored to half his em- 
pire, should invoke the Holy League to lay at his feet 
the other half. The example of the rebellious colo- 
nies was equally pernicious — the outrage on his di- 
vine rights equally atrocious — and conciliation im- 
possible but by the persuasion of the bayonet. 

So plainly was this the next step in the drama — 
that in October 1823 George Canning distinctly 
warned the minister of France that any interference 
by force or menace between Spain and the colonies 
would be the signal for the acknowledgment of their 
independence by England. 

Their independence had been already recognized 
by this Republic — which greeted with overflowing 
heart and disinterested exultation the birth of her 
sisters of the western world. But the impending 
danger to their infant freedom from the blood-thirsty 
tyrants of the Holy League called for something 
more than acknowledgment by this Republic. The 
first to shatter the chains of despotism, her only 
title to existence was the right to defy the Lord's 
anointed. To crush the southern republics because 
they had not asked leave to be free was to impeach 
our liberty, and by implication to affirm the right to 
reduce us beneath the sceptre of England. President 
Monroe felt the danger and met it in advance. His 
declaration was based on the triumph of the allies in 



398 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

Spain, and his conviction that it must be followed up 
by an attack on the republics of America. His mes- 
sage of December 1823 pledged this Republic to repel 
by force of arms any attempt on the part of the Holy 
Allies to apply their system of compulsory reconcilia- 
tion to the South American republics. He did this 
byway of anticipation; and the event proved that 
audacity was wisdom. The same month of De- 
cember 1823 which gave his message to the world 
witnessed a formal demand by Spain on his Holy Re- 
storers to meet at Paris to devise measures for reinstat- 
ing his despotic power in America. The plan com- 
prehended only the restoration of the colonies in 
America. Yet to subject them to Spain was no wrong 
done to us. We expressly and repeatedly declared 
our neutrality between them and Spain. That was 
to declare their existence must depend on their 
ability to maintain themselves. If they fell before 
the arms of Spain we might pity but would not aid 
them. But had not Spain a right to invoke the aid 
of other powers in the war ? And if so, was it not 
inconsistent to make the exercise of that clear right 
the criterion of peace or war with all Europe? Was 
not that within the policy of Washington according 
to the new lights of modern commentators? As- 
suredly it was no aggression on us to restore the 
colonies of South America to their allegiance to 
Spain. Why then did Monroe and the great men of 
the Washingtonian era, his friends and disciples, 
brought up at his feet and worshipping his memory, 
so promptly declare their readiness in that contin- 
gency to fly in the face of what we now are taught 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 399 

to believe was the very pith and substance of his 
teaching? 

The reason was — that they knew a little more 
about the policy of their master. It is plainly as 
much in the teeth of the policy of the address to 
mingle in controversies between European and 
American nations having little or no relation to our 
peculiar interests, as to intervene in struggles between 
European powers having only the same degree of re- 
lation to us. When the address was written, all 
Jlmerica beyond our limits was colonial. No inde- 
pendent flag waved from the north pole to Cape Horn 
but our own. The Viceroys of European monarchs 
ruled at their will the whole continent beyond our 
limits; and those limits did not stretch across the 
Mississippi, nor reach the Gulf of Mexico. Every 
European war must therefore spread to this conti- 
nent and blaze all round our borders. If every such 
contest was to form an exception to Washington's 
rule of isolation, the rule itself would have no case 
left to operate upon. It did not therefore draw the 
line of distinction between European and American 
affairs to which his commentators now delight to 
refer. He did not contemplate our intermeddling in 
all American contests, as European nations are apt to 
do in contests touching the territory of Europe. 
America w r as no exception to his rule: but it was 
embraced in it — as dependent on Europe and fol- 
lowing the ordinary vicissitudes of its politics. He 
had seen more than half of North America change 
hands within his own day : and a reversal of the 
event was no improbable contingency. Yet he made 



400 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

no exception of such a case. He was not basing his 
policy on the theatre of contest, but on its objects, its 
principles, its relation near or remote to our safety 
and independence. Whether the threatening cloud 
arose in Europe or America was not the question : 
but — was it likely to burst on us. 

President Monroe took this view of the policy of 
this country, and he acted on it. He had watched 
with keen interest the struggle of Spain. He greeted 
with joy her free constitution, and it consoled his 
benevolent mind "to see the extraordinary modera- 
tion with which it has been conducted." His mes- 
sage of December 1822 was -filled with the fairest 
anticipations; and though the atmosphere of Europe 
boded a storm which led him to advise instant pre- 
paration, nothing indicated the blow which followed. 
Between that time and the message of December 
1823 the Holy Alliance had developed their policy, 
illustrated it by a terrible example, and stood ready 
to follow it up in another hemisphere. They had 
prostrated Spanish freedom: they prepared and 
threatened to coerce the obedience of her rebellious 
colonies. They professed no hostility to the United 
States; and their intervention was as the ally of 
Spain, a principal party in a legitimate contest in 
which we had formally declared and scrupulously 
maintained our neutrality. But President Monroe 
was no inexperienced political trifler — but a practical 
statesman, bred in a great school, conversant with 
affairs, versed in the logic of political sequences, and 
perfectly conscious of what must follow the reduction 
of the Spanish colonies. The pretexts were trans- 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 401 

parent: and he did not refuse to see through them; 
nor would he believe we were safe because the first 
blow fell on our neighbors. 

He saw for the first time the policy of the Holy 
Allies assume a definite shape. Still affecting the 
disguise of hostility to revolutionary violence and 
excess, which had disgraced, discredited, and over- 
thrown the first French revolution, their assault on 
the liberties of Naples and Spain revealed the real 
purpose of the alliance, the real object of their 
hostility. It was not the excesses of revolution, nor 
the danger of an armed propaganda, but peaceful, 
quiet, legal, constitutional liberty, guarded by armed 
freemen against the encroachments of perfidious 
despots — which they banded to overthrow. Presi- 
dent Monroe saw that this principle included ou 
Republic — as Henry Brougham saw it was applicable 
to England — and that the subjection of the Spanish 
colonies was only the preliminary step to intrigues, 
intermeddlings, aggressions, and combinations against 
us. He therefore met the distant threat by a timely 
warning. Our strength was not great enough then to 
be felt on the continent of Europe. Alone we could 
there effect nothing, while France was the slave of the 
Holy Allies, and England was paralyzed with terror 
or halting between two opinions, disgusted with her 
former allies, startled at the development of principles 
she had sanctioned by her example, yet not resolved 
to meet their pretensions in arms. He therefore 
measured his declaration by our strength : and with 
a boldness which still startles us when we regard 
the disproportion of the parties and the enormous 
51 



402 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

power he engaged to meet, he laid down the line 
beyond which the Holy Allies should not march 
westward without crossing swords with the American 
Republic. 

President Monroe and his cabinet were not troubled 
by many scruples about leaving "our own to stand on 
foreign ground/' when they declared in the face of 
the assembled and allied tyrants of Europe that an 
attack on Chili was an attack on them. Alluding in 
the message of December 1823 to the recent events 
in Spain, the President said : 

" It need scarcely be remarked that the result has 
been far different from what w r as then anticipated. 
Of events in that quarter of the globe with which we 
have so much intercourse and from which we derive 
our origin, we have always been anxious and inter- 
ested spectators. The citizens of the United States 
cherish sentiments the most friendly in favor of the 
liberty and happiness of their fellow men on that side 
of the Atlantic. In the wars of European powers 
in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken 
any part, nor does it comport with our policy so to 
do. It is only when our rights are invaded or seri- 
ously menaced, that we resent injuries or make pre- 
parations for our defence. With the movements in 
this hemisphere we are of necessity more immedi- 
ately connected, and by causes which must be ob- 
vious to all enlightened and impartial observers. The 
political system of the allied Powers is essentially dif- 
ferent in this respect from that of Jlmerica. This dif- 
ference proceeds from that which exists in their re- 
spective governments. And to the defence of our 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 403 

own which has been achieved by the loss of so much 
blood and treasure and matured by the wisdom of 
our most enlightened citizens, the whole nation is 
devoted. We owe it therefore to candor and to the 
amicable relations existing between the United States 
and those powers, to declare that we should consider 
any attempt on their part to extend their system to any 
portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace 
and safety. With the colonies or dependencies of 
any European power we have not interfered and 
shall not interfere. But with the governments who 
have declared their independence and maintain it, 
and whose independence we have on great consider- 
ations and on just principles acknowledged, we could 
not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing 
them or controlling in any other manner their destiny, 
by any European power, in any other light than as the 
manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the 
United States. 

"The late events in Spain and Portugal, show that 
Europe is still unsettled. Of this important fact no 
stronger proof can be adduced than that the allied 
powers should have thought proper, on a principle 
satisfactory to themselves, to have interposed by force 
in the internal concerns of Spain. To what extent 
such interposition may be carried on the same principle 
is a question in ichich all independent powers, whose 
governments differ from theirs, are interested; even 
those most remote, and surely none more so than 
the United States. Our policy in regard to 
Europe, which was adopted at an early stage of the 
wars which have so long agitated that quarter of the 



404 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

globe, nevertheless, remains the same, which is, not 
to interfere in the internal concerns of any of its 
powers, to consider the government de facto as the 
legitimate government for us, &,c. &c. ^But in re- 
gard to these continents, the circumstances are 
eminently and conspicuously different. It is impos- 
sible that the Allied Powers should extend their 
political system to any portion of either continent 
without endangering our peace and happiness : nor can 
any one believe that our southern brethren if left to 
themselves would adopt it of their own accord. It is 
equally impossible, therefore, that we should behold 
such interposition in any form with indifference." 

This declaration — if any thing but empty gasco- 
nade — is the formal adoption of the policy it has 
been my purpose to advocate. I desire to apply its 
principle to a case clearly within the contemplation 
of its author, but not then so developed as to justify 
or require more active precautions. 

It reiterates the policy of Washington, that "in 
the wars of European powers in matters relating to 
themselves, we have never taken any part, nor does 
it comport with our policy to do so." But if our rights 
be " invaded or seriously menaced" — no matter how or 
where, by what nation or combination of powers, — it 
is our policy to prepare to repel aggression. 

But by "seriously menaced" he does not mean 
any formal declaration of hostile intents, nor any 
actual movement directed against us. Any act 
whose principle and whose tendency is to implicate 
our peace and happiness with the system of the Holy 
Allies he considers as a serious menace. li Any 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 405 

attempt to extend their system to any portion of this 
hemisphere" he pronounces " dangerous to our peace 
and safety." " Any interposition for the purpose of 
oppressing" the South American governments, or 
controlling in any other manner their destiny, by any 
European power," he viewed as a manifestation of 
an unfriendly disposition to us. He did not wait for 
a direct assault; he treated the intermeddling with 
any of the governments of this hemisphere as an act of 
hostility. It was not the fact of the assault, but the 
principle involved in it which woke his apprehen- 
sions. He did not mean to propose a partition of 
the world with the European powers; and yield- 
ing to them the old world, engross to ourselves 
the new. But he was ready to repel their assault on 
the smallest and most distant republic of South 
America — though vastly more distant than Europe — 
because u to what extent such interposition may be 
carried on the same principle, is a question in which all 
independent powers whose governments are different 
from theirs are interested, and none more so than the 
United States :" because " their system could not he 
extended to any portion of either continent without 
endangering our peace and happiness ;" because he 
recognized the citizens of the most remote of the 
American governments as "our southern brethren," 
and regarded any attack on them as only the prelude 
to an attack on us. He did not make the inter- 
meddling a cause of war because it took place in 
this hemisphere. We have no more rights in America 
beyond our borders, than in Europe or Asia. But 
he denounced war as the penalty of interference — 



406 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

because it was considered a manifestation of an un- 
friendly disposition towards us: because the princi- 
ple on which such interference would rest must 
embrace our government, be as applicable to us as to 
them, and directly involve the assertion of a right, 
whenever the opportunity might invite, to deal with 
us as they dealt with them. President Monroe, 
therefore, met the danger in the distance with ready 
defiance. He did not measure our danger by 
leagues. He regarded the significance of the acts. 
The Rio de la Plata is farther from us than London 
or Paris. Our trade and connexion with Brazil are 
not near so great as with several European powers: 
and Rio Janeiro is more distant from Washington 
than Washington is from Madrid. The republics of 
the western coast, Chili and Peru — by the ordinary 
route of commercial intercourse — are vastly more 
distant than any part of Europe; and our own pos- 
sessions in Oregon, by the same route, more distant 
still. It was not geographical relations therefore 
which dictated the declaration. It was the principle 
involved in the intervention, its applicability to our- 
selves, and the disposition such an intervention would 
manifest on the part of the JLllied Powers to make their 
power the only limit of their hostile assaults on the liber- 
ties of nations. The principle of the intervention in 
Spain might consistently justify like intervention 
under similar pretexts for the suppression of free 
institutions in any other country. President Monroe 
saw the extent of the principle; and declared no 
nation more interested in its extension than the 
United States. He watched for the spirit which was 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 407 

to guide its application. The assertion of a right 
was nothing till it assumed a practical shape. But 
when an act was done involving a principle applicable 
to us, he thought it the part of a wise statesman to 
look out for the first indications of an intention so to 
apply it. 

The declarations of the allies in their Spanish ex- 
pedition did not distinctly declare their object to be 
the destruction of all free institutions. They con- 
fined it to the particular case. They covered it up 
under special pretexts which however unjustifiable did 
not make it manifest that they intended to extend the 
system beyond the particular circumstances. If it 
rested there, we were not directly and materially 
interested to fight against an example. Nor were we 
able to war against combined Europe. 

But whatever act indicated an intention of apply- 
ing the rule of intervention to the United States, 
President Monroe considered ground of hostility. He 
declared that any act against any American govern- 
ment, on any part of either of the American conti- 
nents, however remote, however insignificant — was 
evidence shewing an intent to make the principle 
involved in the Spanish expedition a practical one all 
over the world, whenever power and opportunity 
would permit. He therefore pronounced such an act 
an aggression on us — incompatible with our peace 
and happiness — and just cause of war. 

But was President Monroe so little of a practical 
statesman as to make one act the only evidence of an 
unfriendly disposition, and to exclude all other 
evidence? Did he mean to be guilty of the folly of 



408 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

saying that an actual assault on some American gov- 
ernment is the only evidence he would regard as valid 
of a disposition to assail liberty in its western home? 
Would no declarations, no preparations, no hate, no 
open and avowed system of policy pursued for a series 
of years over the ruins of independent governments, 
written in characters of blood on a thousand fields and 
always pointing westward as its aim and goal, supply 
the place of the one single act of overt hostility to 
some insignificant American government ? Such 
assuredly was not his view. He felt and avowed 
that no nation was more interested than the United 
States, in the question which the ambiguous and 
oracular declaration of the allies had left doubtful — 
whether the principle was to be extended to all 
cases within their power and its reach — or was to be 
confined to the case of Spain and other cases in cir- 
cumstances alleged to distinguish it. If the allies 
meant the principle of that case to be applied where 
it could be done, to all governments, Monroe felt 
that we were interested in opposing it every where — 
especially should it be actually applied in America — 
but not less in Europe, if opportunity and ability 
existed to settle the question ere it should reach our 
shores. Had Monroe lived in 1848 and 1849, con- 
sistency and sound policy would have driven him to 
urge on England an alliance to break the power 
and humble the insolence of the allied despots. 
Should God in his providence open such another 
opportunity, on us and on our children will rest the 
bloody consequences of neglecting it. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 409 

The same spirited and expanded policy inspired 
another celebrated declaration of that immortal mes- 
sage — which the arrogant claims of Russia to the 
north Pacific and north-western coast provoked and 
justified. It was a part of the same policy which 
proclaimed the readiness of the United States to 
repel with arms any attempt to oppress any of their 
American sisters, that closed the American continents 
to European colonization — the source and the pretext 
of political intrigue, and the ready cover for insidious 
assaults where open hostility would be dangerous. 

In the discussion of the pretensions of Russia, 
President Monroe stated to Congress — "the occasion 
has been deemed proper for asserting as a principle 
in which the rights and the interests of the United 
States are involved, that the American continent, by 
the free and independent condition which they have 
assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be con- 
sidered as subjects for future colonization by any 
European powers." — 

That declaration breathes little of indifference to 
affairs not immediately touching our own concerns. 
It was not confined to the north-western coast then 
in discussion, nor to any territory which we then 
claimed, or to which we might in the future set up a 
pretence. It did not rest at our confines and relate 
only to territory on our borders, nor did it contem- 
plate the islands of the Gulf which lie across the 
channel of our southern trade. It did not stay its 
sweep within the range of territory peculiarly related 
to the United States in any manner. It was as long 
and as broad as the continents of America. It 
52 



410 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

covered them — every foot — with our arms. It 
pledged this Government not merely to protest 
against but to repel, as an aggression dangerously in- 
volving our rights and interests, any attempt at colo- 
nization within or without our territory on either 
continent. From Greenland to Patagonia by that 
declaration Europe stood excluded, or if she entered, 
it could only be over our prostrate arms or tarnished 
honor. 

But this is something very different from the Wash- 
ington policy of the new school. This declaration 
was no tangling alliance — it was no needless political 
connexion with any foreign power. It left us free 
as before to fight or forbear as our interests or honor 
might require. But it did pledge us to the world to 
sustain by arms that declaration in its full and sub- 
stantial width whenever and wherever it was substan- 
tially violated. No body could demand our aid 
against our will; but our dignity was at stake if we 
failed to make good our word. 

This therefore, settled the policy of this country in 
all foreign affairs. It forever repels and refutes the 
foul aspersion that our foreign policy is selfish, un- 
social, narrow-minded, or short-sighted. To be in- 
different to affairs going on around us is no part of 
our national policy or national character. This decla- 
ration is the embodiment of our far-sighted policy — 
and of the fearless readiness of our statesmen to 
proclaim candidly to the world what we consider as 
dangerous to our interests or our security. It de- 
clared that we could recognize no newly ac- 
quired colonial rights — for we regarded all the ter- 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 41 1 

ritory of America now finally partitioned between 
independent powers — however wild, uncultivated, or 
remote might be its situation — however fairly the 
subject of colonization before the recent elevation of 
the Spanish colonies to the dignity of free nations. 
It was as wide as the principle of the Holy Allies, 
which refuses to recognize any right to create a new 
dynasty in Europe. It was more sweeping than the 
treaties of 1815 settling the territorial partition of 
Europe. It was not a treaty whose execution could 
be exacted — but it was the formal and spontaneous 
expression of the central principle of our own inde- 
pendent policy. It was based upon a wide esti- 
mate of the dangers which new colonial settlements 
must entail on any of the new republics within 
whose territories they might grow up — upon the in- 
conveniencies our commerce must sustain from the 
vexatious regulations of powers inimical yet distant 
and irresponsible — upon the deep interest we took 
in the integrity, the peace, and the purity of our 
southern sisters. Recent experience had taught 
that colonization might be the cover or the pretext 
for aggression; and all the nation with one acclaim 
exulted in that manly and open pledge of our influ- 
ence in the cause of liberty. 

But if such a policy were fit to be pursued, it was 
expedient that all interested in its maintenance 
should concur in giving it effect. Permanent alliances 
might be inexpedient, but consultations for common 
purposes to be pursued by common methods, secur- 
ing unity of plan and binding closer the bonds of 
sympathy by declarations of principles which should 



412 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

rule the actions of the parties in designated contin- 
gencies — these were equally expedient and impor- 
tant. The community of interest and fate was a 
better bond than the frail language of treaties which 
ingenuity can always evade. Each party remained 
at liberty to pursue her course free from any right 
of another to implicate her in wars she might not 
approve. Europe had her congresses of Vienna, of 
Laybach, of Verona, to provide for her common 
interests, and for the suppression of liberty : it was 
fit that the free republics of America, threatened by 
that hostile combination, should pledge themselves 
by their solemn declarations not to tolerate its armed 
intermeddling on this side the Atlantic. Having 
many and grave common interests, commercial and 
political, of primary moment to them, and having 
little or no relation to the affairs of Europe, it was 
fit that they should have their congress of Panama, 
to consult and provide for the maintenance of their 
rights, and the promotion of their peculiar interests. 
At the instance of several of the South American 
republics, the states of America were invited to meet 
in diplomatic congress, at Panama; and the repre- 
sentatives of Peru, Mexico, Central America and 
^ Colombia, met on the 22d of June 1826. 
President Adams, inspired by the wise and manly 
policy of his predecessor — shaped by himself as Sec- 
retary of State — now as President recommended the 
appointment of ministers to that congress. Strong 
opposition arose in the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives. The resources of Daniel Webster's states- 
manship were marshalled in defence of the wisdom 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 413 

of the measure — in opposition to and to the confusion 
of the let alone men of that day. The President, at 
the call of Congress, explained the purposes contem- 
plated by the mission. After the most elaborate con- 
sideration, the Senate and the House approved that 
policy. This is the most authoritative exposition 
ever given of our foreign policy by all branches of 
the government. It settles definitively that policy to 
be not one of timid neutrality or of selfish and unso- 
cial isolation, or of mean pursuit of filthy lucre, while 
the world is in arms struggling for the triumph of 
truth. But it declared that in our sphere, and in 
our day and according to our measure, and so far as 
is compatible with our safety, we are on the side of 
liberty, not merely in word, but in deed — not merely 
in the cabinet, but in the field. 

The message — affirmed by the votes of both 
houses of congress — is the best exposition of the 
policy it proposed, and they espoused. 

The President first considered whether the course 
proposed had any tendency to change the policy of 
the country, which sedulously avoided "entangling 
alliances;" and "unnecessary political connexions." 
He came to the conclusion that time had changed the 
condition of affairs, and introduced new elements 
requiring consideration. Our situation was no longer 
"detached and distant;" but we were the centra), 
the oldest, the most powerful and experienced 
member of a new system of independent republics. 
This system had interests primary to its members 
and only remotely related to the nations of Europe. 
Their change from colonial vassalage to independence 



414 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

multiplied our relations with them as well of interest 
as of sympathy. As colonies, they were a sealed 
book. As free nations, we delighted to read in them 
the transcript and impress of our own glorious insti- 
tutions working by example. With them, we not 
only then had, but must necessarily continue to 
have — whether we wished it or not — numerous and 
complex political relations, which must increase with 
their growth. He affirmed that the time foretold by 
Washington, when our augmented strength would 
enable us "to defy material injury from external an- 
noyance and with reference to belligerent nations we 
might choose peace or war, as our interests guided 
by justice should counsel" — had arrived. He de- 
clared, that u America had a set of primary interests, 
which have none or a very remote relation to Eu- 
rope: that the interference of Europe, therefore, 
in those concerns, should be spontaneously with- 
held by her upon the same principles that we have 
never interfered with hers: and that if she should 
interfere, as she may, by measures which may have 
a great and dangerous recoil upon ourselves, we 
might be called in defence of our altars and firesides, 
to take an attitude which would cause our neutrality 
to be respected, and choose peace or war as our 
interest, guided by justice shall counsel. The ac- 
ceptance of this invitation, therefore, far from con- 
flicting with the counsel or the policy of Washington, 
is directly deducible from and conformable to it." 

To what contingencies these words related he 
proceeds to shew, by invoking the authority of his 
predecessor, and incorporating in his message the 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 415 

celebrated declaration of defiance flung by him in the 
face of the banded tyrants and peacemakers of 
Europe. They both held the same policy, and con- 
curred in regarding it as the just development of the 
counsels of the father of his country addressed to the 
manhood of his offspring. 

To the suggestion that such consultations might 
prove distasteful to the Holy League or to Spain, he 
loftily replied — 

"Our attendance at Panama can give no just cause 
of umbrage or offence to either ; and that the United 
States will stipulate nothing there which can give 
any such cause. Here the right of inquiry into our 
purposes and measures must stop. The Holy League 
of Europe itself was formed without inquiring of the 
United States whether it would or would not give 
umbrage to them. The fear of giving umbrage to 
the Holy League of Europe was urged as a motive for 
denying to the American nations the acknowledg- 
ment of their independence. That it would be viewed 
by Spain as hostility to her was not only urged but 
directly declared by herself. The Congress and 
Administration of that day consulted their rights and 
duties, and not their fears J Fully determined to give •« 
no needless displeasure to any foreign power, the 
United States can estimate the probability of their a ^ 
giving it only by the right which any foreign state 
could have to take it from their measures. Neither 
the representation of the United States at Panama, 
nor any measure to which their assent may be yielded 
there, will give to the Holy League or any of its 
members, nor to Spain, the right to take offence : for 



416 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

the rest, the United States must still as heretofore 
take counsel from their duties rather than their fears." 

There were several objects of that Congress at Pa- 
nama. It was benevolently hoped that private war 
might be banished from the ocean, and piracy cease to 
be the ally of civilized nations — that neutral property 
covered by the flag and protected by the bottom 
might sail unscorched through the flames of war — 
that our counsels and experience might aid our 
younger and less tried sisters in treading the thorny 
path of political life. But these were not all, nor its 
chief objects. The main purpose of that congress, 
in the view of President Adams, was to arrange a 
common plan to protect by arms, if protests proved 
vain, the rights of republican America • from the 
armed pacificators of Europe. Whether in the shape 
of a treaty, or a declaration of common purpose, or 
an understanding, tacit, but clear, was matter of 
secondary consideration. The time, the mode, the 
extent of aid, were to be defined. The field of 
action was not necessarily to be confined to this 
continent. The purpose was the protection of the 
liberty and independence of this western world, 
whether questioned on the Amazon, the Atlantic, 
or the Rhine. 

Mr. Adams expressly declared the purpose of that 
congress to be — to give effect to Monroe's declara- 
tions that these continents were not the subjects of 
European colonization. He declared that "most of 
the American nations have declared their entire 
assent to them; and they now propose among the 
subjects of consultation at Panama, to take into con- 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 417 

sideration the means of making effectual the assertion 
of this principle, as well as the means of resisting 
interference from abroad with the domestic concerns of 
the American governments." 

At that very time there lay in the Russian archives 
the records of a consultation held on the importance 
of reducing the South American republics under 
the dominion of Spain. It formed a part of that 
scheme that the United States should be subjugated. 
The memoir containing this startling proposal ema- 
nated in the year 1817 from the pen of Pozzo de 
Borgo — one of the most eminent of the remarkable 
corps of diplomatists by whom Russia prepares the 
march of her armies. They do not impertinently 
volunteer their advice unasked upon their govern- 
ment. That memoir was therefore on a subject then 
under consideration by the Russian Government, and 
its language gives the confirmation of history to the 
logic of this work — which deduced from the prin- 
ciples of the Holy Alliance the necessity of their 
attempting to overthrow this Republic as their crown- 
ing labor. Pozzo de Borgo rests his opinion on that 
very incompatibility between our institutions and 
those of the allies and the effect of our example, 
which it has been my purpose to develope. He 
said — 

t( Founded on the sovereignty of the people, the re- 
public of the United States of America was a fire, of 
which the daily contact with Europe threatened the 
latter with conflagration ; that as an asylum for all 
innovators, it gave them the means of disseminating 
at a distance, by their writings and by the authority of 
53 



418 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC A^fD 

their example, a poison of which the communication 
could not he questioned, as it was well known that the 
French revolution had its origin in the United States; 
that already troublesome effects were felt from the 
presence of the French refugees in the United 
States." He then proceeded to argue that our 
reduction would be an easy enterprise, while our aug- 
menting power made us objects of fear to European 
monarchical governments. 

Russia therefore had been meditating our subjuga- 
tion — as matter of sound policy — on the principle of 
the inherent incompatibility of our system and hers — 
prior to the Spanish and Neapolitan revolutions, and 
before the congresses of Laybach and Verona had pro- 
claimed her principles to the world or elicited the 
warning protest of President Monroe. This fact 
gives the confirmation of history to the prophetic 
penetration of Monroe and Adams, and properly ap- 
preciated, it flings a terrible light on the path we 
have been trying to explore.* 

In the face of this peril we are proud to reflect 
that President Adams in his message did not confine 
himself to our own domestic concerns. He did not 
contemplate a selfish repose amid the troubles of our 
neighbors, nor the resting secure in our own strength 
for our own protection. He did not contemplate 
turning a deaf ear to the cry of the feeble for help 
against the mighty, nor leaving them to perish so 

* For this important document, I am indebted to the profound and statesman- 
like speech of Senator Soule — which was not delivered till after these pages were 
written, and which I was so unfortunate as not to see until they were in the 
printer's hands. Otherwise, I should have been most happy to extend my 
obligations to its comprehensive researches. 7 July, 1852. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 419 

that we only might be safe. But heartily concurring 
in Monroe's two declarations of principle, feeling 
that we were aimed at by the Holy Conspiracy of 
Europe, confident that division, inaction, and timidity 
would only hasten the inevitable day, he resolved to 
organize a plan of united resistance to any encroach- 
ments near or remote by the allied sovereigns. 

The congress of Panama was therefore intended 
as a counterpoise to the congress- of Verona. Its 
purpose was to elevate the protest of the United 
States to the dignity of the universal policy of re- 
publican America. It aspired to unite in one un- 
broken front the republics of these continents for 
the conservation of liberty in this its last asylum 
against those who, having strangled its infant energies 
in Europe, were hasting to follow with bloody hands 
its nourishing offspring beyond the ocean. 

On this ground it was placed by the message, and 
defended in congress; and while much opposition 
was there felt and expressed against any entangling 
alliances, yet the voting the appropriation by the 
House of Representatives, and the approval by the 
Senate of the mission and the ministers, after this 
message and a full discussion of its principles, can be 
considered in no other light than the deliberate affir- 
mation by all departments of the government that the 
policy of the message was the policy of the country. 

We stand, therefore, committed to the principle of 
united opposition to any development of the princi-. 
pies of the Holy Alliance threatening the cause of 
free government in this western world. No man is 
entitled to say, it is our policy to be patient and in- 






420 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

active while our allies and natural friends are falling 
around us so long as we are untouched. The 
fathers of the Republic did not deem so meanly of its 
destiny and power. They feared ambitions and 
entangling alliances, they deprecated needless politi- 
cal connexions, they repudiated the folly of national 
attachments or antipathies, of hereditary devotion or 
hostility. They felt that their first duty was to their 
nation; but their second duty was to liberty and 
humanity. They would not sacrifice the former to 
the latter; but they were quick to see that the one 
was closely allied to the other, and our safety was 
wrapped up in the freedom of our neighbors. They 
were prudent not to draw the sword till it might be 
felt — nor then till it was required: but they fear- 
lessly proclaimed to the world the limits of patience, 
the principle of peace or war: and they left to the 
future and the hereditary spirit of their children to 
redeem the gage of their plighted honor. They 
did not condemn this mighty Republic to silence 
in the great debate of nations. They did not 
place the sword in the hands of the President as 
an idle bauble, or to be drawn only in the cause of 
Mammon ; nor did they ever dream that this people, 
silent and inactive amid the clang of arms where the 
destiny of nations was being decided, should play 
sutler to the camp and fatten on the blood of the 
martyrs of freedom — pursuing like the jackall with 
creeping and stealthy pace the low hunt for prey 
over the field of the weltering dead — but stained by 
no blood of theirs. 



.*.«. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 421 

They would have recoiled with disgust at the 
picture of their descendants playing the Jew among 
the nations — in the world but not of it — with no 
voice in its affairs and no weight in its destinies — 
careful only of gain and ready to fight only for gold — 
holding the sacrilegious love of lucre the only re- 
ligion elevating the spirit to martyrdom, and liberty 
valueless save as its security. Had such been their 
spirit, we had been no nation. Had such been their 
legacy of dishonor to us, their children, we might 
have started on the humiliating mission — but we 
should have caught inspiration at the sight of arms. 
We might have gone, like the son of Jesse, to the 
field of battle laden with parched corn and cheeses 
for our elder and heroic brethren : but he mistakes 
the spirit of this Republic who supposes that her 
children could calmly listen to the Goliath of despots 
defying the hosts of liberty without taking up that 
challenge and testing in arms the might of that uncir- 
cumcised Philistine. 

Much rather, when I contemplate their youthful 
daring and matured might, do I recognise the linea- 
ments of the offspring in Milton's painting of our 
English ancestors — ■ 

" Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant 
nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, 
and shaking her invincible locks: Methinks I see 
her as an Eagle muing her mighty youth, and 
kindling her undazPd eyes at the full midday beam; 
purging and unsealing her long abused sight at the 
fountain itself of heav'nly radiance; while the whole 
noise of timorous and flocking birds, with those also 



422 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

that love the twilight, nutter about, amaz'd at what 
she means, and in their envious gabble would prog- 
nosticat a year of sects and schisms." 

So stood the Republic of that day — lofty and 
defying. 

But we owe our escape from a collision with the 
despotic powers to other terrors than our protests. 

Thrice have the European revolutionists diverted 
the lightning from our heads to their own. 

In 1815, the wars of the giants closed. Napoleon 
was chained to the rock of St. Helena; and the 
European system was reconstructed at Vienna. 

Allowing themselves small breathing space, in 
1817 the allied despots prepared to restore to the 
crown of Spain the sceptre of the American Indies, 
and audaciously debated our subjugation as a disturber 
of the public peace of the world. 

The explosion in Spain and Naples diverted their 
arms and their thoughts from conquest to defence 
from 1819 to the end of 1823. 

Restored to his absolute throne, Ferdinand in 
December 1823 urged on his allies the resumption 
of the American expedition. 

Our protest may have had some weight. But just 
then the smouldering fires blazed up in Greece, and 
the Ottoman empire seemed crumbling to pieces. 

The Czar eagerly turned from the certain perils 
and doubtful fruits of a western crusade; and the day 
of Navarino and the passage of the Balkan employed 
in the rich and tempting field of Turkish conquest 
till 1829, the arms we otherwise might have felt. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 423 

The shock of 1830 followed swiftly on the treaty 
of Adrianople : the army of the Balkan was recalled 
to the plains of Poland: and France having once 
more broken prison fixed the eye and roused the 
fears and the hate of the Czar. Europe for eighteen 
years continued too unsettled to allow the thought of 
western conquests. The despotic powers were busy 
with the work of compression — ignorantly preparing 
from afar the era of 1848. 

Prostrate for a moment by that explosion, they 
regained their feet; and now the liberal cause lies 
crushed beneath the ruins of its shattered fortress: 
while Russia, confidently grasping the dictatorship 
of Europe, is ready for any enterprise to expand or 
consolidate her empire. 

The cycle of time has brought us back to the 
circumstances, and in face of the dangers which 
occasioned the declarations of President Monroe, and 
the wise precautions of President Adams. The in- 
solence of an Austrian Minister has provoked Secre- 
tary Webster's indignant rebuke. In language such 
as this government has not held since the lofty 
message of President Adams, he reminded the Impe- 
rial despots that this Republic had a voice and might 
take a hand in the affairs of the world. The time is 
not far distant when we shall be called on to redeem 
those pledges, or stand recreant before the world. 
It is now time that we consider of our course ere we 
be required to take it. 

The American Republic in the face of every 
danger will adhere to her ancient, wise, and liberal 
policy — varying her measures to meet the shifting of 



424 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

events — but holding fast to the unity of the principle 
amid the variety of the means by which she pursues it. 

Her policy is that of the Father of his Country — 
applied to circumstances within his foresight and 
covered by his words. 

It is still her "policy to steer clear of permanent 
alliances with any portion of the foreign world;" — 
but it is also still her policy — now in the face of a 
great crisis — " to trust to temporary alliances for ex- 
traordinary emergencies." 

The country has now progressed "to that degree 
of strength and constancy, which is necessary to give 
it, humanely speaking, the command of its own 
fortune." 

The time has come "when we may choose peace 
or war, as our interests guided by justice shall 
counsel." 

"Our detached and distant situation," has ceased 
to be a fact — by the creation of the Spanish American 
republics on our borders. We form the centre of a 
new and peculiar system — at war with the principles 
which are being enforced on Europe, and which can 
only triumph finally by our overthrow. 

This change enabled and compelled Mr. Monroe 
to deduce from the policy of Washington his decla- 
ration to the Holy Allies, " that we should consider 
any attempt on their part to extend their system to 
any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our 
peace and safety." 

He meant by those words that in such event "our 
interest guided by justice" would counsel us to 
choose war. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 425 

The impending danger of the extension of the 
system of the Holy League to American affairs in- 
duced Mr. Adams to send ministers to Panama "to 
take into consideration the means of making effectual 
the assertion of that principle, as well as the means of 
resisting interference from abroad with the domestic 
concerns of the American governments." 

It is now matter not of conjecture but of history, 
that the object of our fears was no phantom. We 
know that the allied despots stood prepared to apply 
their system of armed intervention on this side the 
Atlantic; that our subjugation was within the range 
of their views; that the assault on our southern 
neighbors which must have implicated us was turned 
aside by European revolutions; and that they who 
made them are now there prostrate and disarmed. 
We know that the same necessity of policy requires 
our subjugation for the peace of European despots: 
and the plan which once existed we do not know to 
have been abandoned. 

Recent events have renewed and increased the 
dangers which President Adams sought to obviate at 
the congress of Panama. The triumph of Russia in 
1848 has left her free to pursue the principle of her 
policy consistently to its most distant results. The 
Holy Alliance, reduced to a unit by the dictatorship of 
the Czar, scornfully repudiates the political events of 
thirty years, and refuses to recognize a crown of 
France save on the head of a legitimate Bourbon. It 
turns its scowl of open hate on the popular freedom of 
England and America, and denounces war on the 
very foundations of their constitutions — as organized 
54 



426 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

disturbers of the peace of the world, whose overthrow 
only abides the fullness of time. Steam has added 
wings to its might, exempted naval war from the 
vicissitudes of the winds and the waves, and leaves 
New York more exposed to Nicholas than was Lon- 
don to Napoleon. 

If therefore the congress of Panama were a fit 
precaution against that of Verona — a congress of 
London speaking the will of England and America 
will be a fit response to the diplomatic notes of 
Vienna. 

Confiding in the assurance of Washington that 
" we may safely trust to temporary alliances for ex- 
traordinary emergencies," I point to the "extraor- 
dinary emergencies" impending over us; and insist 
that now as "heretofore, taking counsel from our 
duties rather than from our fears," we should construct 
such "temporary alliances" as may be requisite to 
enable us to surmount them. 

This policy which I propose is no wild crusade to 
force freedom on reluctant nations. It is no propa- 
gandist policy made available for self-defence. It 
does not propose to enforce liberty by the bayonet 
or to preach it from the camp. It is no proclamation 
of the rights of man to people in contented or in dis- 
contented slavery. No institutions accepted or ac- 
quiesced in are proposed to be overthrown — still 
less is any hostility felt or avowed or recommended 
against kings and monarchical government. The 
principle is defensive, not propagandist. The history 
of forty years is its justification. The safety of our 
own freedom is its object. We are threatened with 



THE LAST AVAR OF FREEDOM. 427 

the success of a scheme of policy which has consist- 
ently pursued its course through thirty years of 
triumph — which now is on the point of being crowned 
as the arbiter of Europe — and which we have 
reason to know can and will make itself felt on this 
side of the Atlantic. We would defend ourselves 
by aiding those who are our natural allies; who with 
our aid may be victorious: who without it run great 
risk of failure: for if they fail our only hope is — in 
a successful contest single handed with the power 
before which they fell. 

Neither is it recommended that the Republic 
declare itself the guarantor of the independence of 
nations. The power of this Republic is not equal 
to such a declaration : and its settled policy disclaims 
it. We have the right to aid any nation unjustly 
assailed. It is our duty to regard our own interests 
in the exercise of that right. To conquer San Ma- 
rino or to occupy Cracow are acts of outrage equal 
to the partition of Poland or the conquest of Hun- 
gary: yet to defy Russia and Austria in the cause of 
the former would be senseless; while self-preser- 
vation might under some circumstances require us to 
espouse the cause of the latter. The right is the 
same in each case: the reasons of policy must 
decide on the exercise or the forbearance of our 
right. 

Many outrages may even now be committed in 
Europe in the name and in the cause of despotic 
power which nevertheless we should be foolish to 
resent. Nothing is more possible than the occupa- 
tion of Switzerland by France and Austria; but if 



428 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

no other power interpose to aid Switzerland, if no 
revolutionary outbreak shake the continent — our in- 
tervention would be equally impolitic and nugatory. 

But if England be assailed with deadly hostility by 
the combined despots of Europe, aiming to extinguish 
the glories of her arts and commerce, the light of 
her example and her liberty, the mighty refuge of 
hunted freedom, then — in spite of her monarchical 
head and aristocratic decorations — I see the vile 
attempt of despots to crush the spirit of liberty which 
alone renders her powerful, terrible and hated: and 
in my judgment, the time would have come when 
the sword of the republic should be drawn to defend 
in the person of England the rights of freedom and 
our own independence. 

If God shall put it again in the hearts of the people 
to rise with simultaneous resolution against their 
oppressors as in 1848, and shall bless their efforts 
by again placing their rulers at their mercy and 
liberty within their grasp, then this Republic should 
not stand still and see them overborne by combinations 
of foreign arms and domestic treachery. She should 
not hesitate to improve the precious opportunity 
which Providence affords. She should display the 
banner of freedom in aid of our struggling brethren, 
and fling her sword into the trembling scale which 
weighs the destiny of the world. 

We must be ready to make costly sacrifices of 
blood and treasure. Despotism will deliver terrible 
battle ere it loose its gripe on the neck of man : and 
the next battle will be the final and decisive one. 
It will be no passing cloud; but neither sun nor stars 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 429 

shall appear for many days after its fury bursts over 
the world : and they who love fair weather and smooth 
seas should pray that that day be put far from them. 
But our contribution will be of our abundance to 
the necessities of the weak and destitute. Their 
wants will determine the shape of our aid. We 
shall be called on for no army for the invasion of 
Europe. The cause of liberty now numbers her 
soldiers by the million ; it can command more men 
than it can arm, support, or officer. The spirit of 
liberty — like that of religion — makes her abode in 
the hearts and homes of the poor and the powerless. 
Their blood is the only libation they can pour on her 
altars — but that is ever ready at her call. We shall 
be called on for liberal and unceasing supplies of 
provisions — for the hand that wields the musket 
must abandon the plough. Our coffers must stand 
open — that men willing to contribute their life to the 
cause may not become a fruitless sacrifice. Arms 
must be placed in the outstretched hands of her 
devotees — for despotism has been careful to leave 
them defenceless. The military monarchies of Eu- 
rope will yield to no arguments but steel and lead, — 
and they must be made to feel the bayonets they are 
so ready to inflict. Military science may be needed 
to marshal the willing but ill-instructed recruits, — and 
our youths at West Point and her splendid alumni 
eagerly expect their country's call to the field of 
glory. ' Our fleet — augmented so as to be less scan- '*A 
dalously unequal to the resources and the wants of 
the country- 1 — combined with that of England can 
sweep our enemies from the face of the ocean — 

- 



430 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

and its high duty will be to pour in the supplies we 
furnish through every seaport of the continent, 
while it vigilantly intercepts all assaults on our do- 
mestic peace. From invasion by European armies 
we have nothing to fear; they will be employed at 
home, or if they venture the rash experiment, the 
luckless force which lands will melt away before the 
flood of armed men our teeming population will 
enable us to pour around it. Our only danger is 
from our southern neighbors, and they can only be 
driven into the arms of the despots by our selfish, 
grasping, unsocial policy. 

Hungary fell — not for lack of men or heroism or 
science, but — because destitute of arms for the hands 
of her sons and of food for their mouths. She had 
no friendly flag, no La Fayette and Kosciusko, no 
French money, arms, or hearts. No French fleet 
poured its stores into her ports or kept them free to 
neutral commerce. But for such aid vain had been 
the devotion of Washington. He would have been 
buried in a month beneath the masses of disciplined 
soldiers whose march trampled out Hungarian free- 
dom. His name would have been branded as that of 
a traitor — or enrolled among the martyrs of liberty — 
leaving no offspring to bless him with the name of 
father. 

The principle therefore of our aid must be — to 
supply the deficiencies of the liberal men of Eu- 
rope — to place them on even terms with their foes— 
and then trust to their courage and devotion to win 
for themselves what no one can give them — the 
priceless blessings of deserved and appreciated liberty. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 431 

The grievous fault of 1848 should not be repeated 
by England and America. They then threw away 
by sloth and indifference, by timidity and selfishness, 
the greatest opportunity ever afforded to settle the 
war between freedom and slavery. France is equally 
to blame; but she has paid the penalty of her folly 
by bitter humiliation beneath the heel of her tyrant. 
She has her own salvation to work out, and not till 
that is done can her glorious legions be counted 
amid the hosts of freedom. In the presence of her 
great agony let the tongue of censure be silent — yet 
let not the eye which provides for the future fail to 
mark the costly errors of the past. 

Things would be very different in Europe now, 
had France and England and America acted with 
unity, energy, and devotion. 

The men of the Provisional government reversed 
the precedents of the great revolution in order to 
rescue the cause of the republic from the stain of 
blood and the imputation of ambition. They pro- 
claimed peace as their policy and refused to mingle 
in the strife of neighboring people lest they should 
bring on their cause the charge of propagandism. 
History looking on the event pronounces that policy 
a blunder. It could be right only on condition that 
all other powers acted on it also. The northern 
powers had been canting of peace for thirty years — 
yet never failed to make war under pretext of its 
preservation. It was contrary to experience to anti- 
cipate any change of their policy or of their conduct. 
It was a blunder to act on so baseless a supposition. 
It should have been assumed that their moderation 



432 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

was only a calm policy waiting the time to strike ; that 
their only restraint is coercion » that the first blow 
might decide the combat; that no faith could bind 
the enemies of freedom ; and that disability to do 
harm was the only assurance of safety. 

Had France and England acted on this theory — 
treated the cause of the people as theirs, wherever it 
was contested, and manfully afforded it the support of 
their name and their arms — Europe would now be 
free and at peace, and the dictatorship of Russia a 
thin shadow of the past. 

Had France crossed the Alps and supported the 
cause of Charles Albert, an inconsiderable force 
would have driven Austria, distracted and enfeebled 
by an universal revolt, from Lombardy — put to flight 
the incubus which oppressed the breathing of Italy — 
and secured its entire independence. 

Had England remembered her greatest moment — 
when Ferdinand anxious to repay his debt to des- 
potism, prepared to crush the Portuguese constitu- 
tion whose freedom he hated and whose contact he 
feared, and George Canning electrified Parliament 
by the memorable words — 

"The precise information on which alone we could 
act arrived only on Friday last. On Saturday the 
decision of the government was taken. On Sunday 
we obtained the sanction of his majesty. On Monday 
we came down to Parliament. — And at this very 
hour — while I have now the honor of addressing this 
House — British troops are on their way to Por- 
tugal" — and had she acted in that spirit — Europe 
would not now be at the feet of the Czar. 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 433 

Had Palmerston the liberal breathed the free 
spirit of Canning the tory — and when Russia crossed 
the Carpathians, sent British troops to Hungary — as 
Canning did to Portugal — Hungary had now been 
free. 

Had he firmly supported the struggling nations of 
Italy whose revolts he countenanced and encouraged 
only to desert, English statesmen would not now be 
estimating her power to wage single-handed a war 
against the spiritual and temporal despots of com- 
bined Europe. 

Had England met the menace of Russian interven- 
tion in the affairs of Hungary with her armed pro- 
test, it probably would never have taken place — and 
Hungary was master of her own destiny so long as 
she had to deal with Austria alone. If Russia dis- 
regarded that protest and England had given effect 
to her declaration by such support of Hungary as 
she bestowed on Spain against Napoleon, there can 
be no sort of question of the result. She would 
have been aiding a martial and heroic people, so 
absolutely united in their cause that the enemy 
could not buy spies, so devoted that thousands were 
turned away in tears because there were not arms to 
put in their hands, with a government resting on the 
affections of the people and wielded by the only man 
equal to the crisis of 1848. She need have sent no 
army to rally a people animated, united, and in arms. 
All they needed was her countenance, her commerce, 
her supplies of arms, her fleet to sweep the seas. 
With no other aid Hungary could have turned the 
tide of Russian invasion and set the very heart of 
55 



434 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

the empire in a flame by an appeal to the fiery Pole. 
This Republic could have aided in this cause : alone 
she could have turned the scale : with England it 
would have been an easy game. They were both 
blind and indifferent: and with the fall of Hungary 
all the precious blood of the revolutions of 1848 
sunk fruitless into the earth. 

Should the fires of revolution again blaze up — 
should any such combination of propitious events 
again occur — it is the true policy as it is the bounden 
duty of the two only free and powerful governments 
of the world, with united arms, to dare the worst in 
the great cause of freedom — unswayed by any preju- 
dices about forms of government, socialist theories, 
the rights of rival classes — but firmly holding to the 
conviction that the people of every nation, when 
freed from the oppression and terror of external 
domination, will wisely, calmly, and peacefully settle 
their own affairs on a basis satisfactory to themselves. 
No temporary excesses of the outraged people should 
chill their ardor or relax their efforts; for every 
battle is with confusion and garments rolled in blood : 
and liberty is worth the costly excesses which ac- 
company the conflict. We should lay aside the 
arrogant boast that however the genus human being 
may prevail in Europe the species man flourishes 
only in America. We leave to despots as the only 
defence of their iniquities the humbling suggestion of 
the unfitness of the people of Europe for the blessings 
and securities of liberty. It would be well to seek 
in the wisdom and moderation of their legislative 
proceedings the proofs of their capacity; and to 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 435 

look for the causes of their overthrow in the com- 
bination of external violence and internal treachery. 
It might moderate our scorn for the humiliation of 
France by Louis Napoleon to reflect what would 
have been our fate had Washington accepted the 
crown his officers pressed him to assume; and how 
far the necessity of a standing army of three hundred 
thousand men would place our institutions at the 
mercy of our President. It may be worth while to 
reflect how long our revolutionary fathers could have 
stood before such armies as invaded Hungary; and 
that we achieved our independence with three thou- 
sand miles of ocean rolling between us and our foes 
only by the gold and arms of France without which 
we must have failed. It will throw light on the 
question to remember that a standing army of ten 
thousand men would have saved Charles I. his head, 
and secured England for the cause of legitimate 
monarchy. We join in the scandal of our enemies 
when we thus confound the capacity to govern 
with the ability to repel overwhelming violence or to 
insure exemption from internal treachery. We should 
rather stand amazed at the stupendous successes of 
the friends of liberty in the face of ^uch obstacles 
than scandalized at their overthrow. Their heroism 
is worthy of our sympathy not of our scorn; and if 
they fell we are guilty of their blood which flowed 
because we failed to repay the aid we received. 
When the people of Europe are relieved from the 
fears of external and despotic violence those great 
armies — so dangerous to free institutions — will melt 



436 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

away from the face of the earth; and with security 
and freedom will come peace, moderation, and re- 
pose. We hold fast to the faith — that the wildest 
theorist, the most licentious socialist, the fiercest 
jacobin is less dangerous, less deadly, less bloody and 
proscriptive, than is the soft tongued and treacherous 
hearted, the crowned and anointed, the legalized and 
legitimate pirate against human freedom ; and turning 
from the red republic to the redder despotism, we 
remember that one is a passing fury, the other a 
perpetual scourge breathing poison and dealing death, 
and dwelling in darkness which is rendered doubly 
terrible by the blacker demons of spiritual despotism 
which flit around its throne the obsequious ministers 
of its will. 

The contest is not between republicanism and 
monarchy: but between freedom and slavery: the 
power of the despot and the power of the people. It is 
matter of serious doubt whether a hereditary head — 
if one can be found' with an honest heart — be not the 
safest for the present necessities of some parts of 
Europe. Whether best or worst, it is entirely com- 
patible with free institutions: and its adoption or 
rejection should not be permitted for a moment to 
divide the friends of freedom in the face of their 
common and deadly foe — who can be conciliated by 
no form of government where popular power is 
honestly recognized. It is folly for the friends of the 
people to insure their common ruin, because they 
cannot agree on the form in which they will enjoy 
the liberty they have not yet acquired. The strongest 
freest best government o( the world — after our own — 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 437 

is the popular monarchy of England. The crowned 
head of Victoria is infinitely dearer to us than the 
crownless despot who mocks the world with the 
nickname of Prince President of the French Repub- 
lic. It is true that royalty ancient and modern has 
defiled every word which man has invented to desig- 
nate it. Despot, tyrant, king — what of iniquity do 
not the very words import? Yet it is the use alone 
which has soiled them. In their origin they were 
simple and honest names for high offices — as respecta- 
ble as that of president: and that venerable title will 
contract similar contamination if worn much longer 
by the despot of France. There is something cold 
and heartless, selfish and inhuman, at the very core 
of royal natures. Lifted — like lofty mountains — 
far into the regions of the air, their approach to the 
heavens makes them only colder than their fellows of 
the earth. The light of the sun pours without its 
w T armth on their heads — illuminating the distant 
paths of ambition, but not softening the heart so that 
it can relent in its inexorable purposes. Human 
sympathies perish in the eternal snows which wrap 
them round. They embody and represent the cold 
malignity of Satan, treacherous, cunning, and cruel, 
unmoved in their purposes by any soft emotion, 
wise in the light of reason to pursue their deeds of 
iniquity, and infinitely removed from the reach of 
pity or remorse for the blood that they shed or the 
hearts that they break. Such is the curse with 
which despotic power blights its possessor: and its 
blackest traits have been exemplified on the thrones 
of Europe in the middle of the nineteenth century. 



438 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

Still a hereditary crown, surrounded and limited by 
the people from whom it emanates and to whom it is 
responsible, may comport with freedom of no mean 
grade : and they who unite in that great cause must 
tolerate the prejudices, the weaknesses, the necessi- 
ties, the waywardness and perversity of each. 

The existing repose of Europe is transitory. What 
shall be the next scene of that drama there is no 
prophet to tell; but whatever be the shape events 
may take, we know the chief actors and the parts 
they will play. We know that the Czar will lead 
the crusade of despotism : and that he will be opposed 
by the hosts of freedom — but who shall be their 
leader, or who their allies, or when that day shall 
come, it is not given us to know. It may be at the 
threshhold — or half a generation off. It may be that 
France will shake off the domination of Louis Napo- 
leon and Russia may march in the cause of kings 
under the name of the Bourbons. It may be that 
Louis Napoleon may acquiesce in her dictation, con- 
sent to rule on her terms and by her aid, and post- 
pone till his death the decisive conflict. It may be 
that he will appeal to the pride of France, and array 
her against the northern league in the name of 
national sovereignty, for the benefit of his personal 
ambition: or that allied with his masters he may 
purchase his peace by services against freedom. 
Germany may once again draw the sword and clutch 
it with a firmer and more resolute grasp. Some 
unknown and unanticipated event may open the flood- 
gates of revolutionary war. But however and when- 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 439 

ever the general peace is disturbed the parties to the 
contest will be the servants of light and of darkness — 
and the latter will be led by the Czar of Russia. 

The problem we have to solve is — by what arms 
he may best be met and overthrown. 

Europe is quiet on the surface — but boiling be- 
neath. It is a crust covering molten lava — which 
any day may stir into the resistless fury of the earth- 
quake, engulfing every throne in its fiery chasms. 
Russia is the only power of Europe seated on 
ground not undermined by the volcanic fires of revo- 
lution — the sole and the last refuge of despotism. She 
is powerful to protect; but she is not invulnerable. 
In wars of ordinary ambition she can be assailed in 
no vital part. She can repel invasion and retaliate 
it with impunity. Experience has shewn that with 
her on their side the monarchs of Europe are too strong 
for their subjects. But to the fires of revolution she 
is obnoxious. Her Polish provinces are exposed so 
that she cannot protect them. Their indomitable 
spirit supported from abroad will roll back the tide 
of Russian invasion, dam up the resources of the 
princes of western Europe, and deliver them naked 
and defenceless to the fiery indignation of their 
outraged people. Thus only can Russia be assailed. 
Thus only can the cause of freedom be emancipated 
from her deadly power. 

This is the only possible mode — but it is sure and 
effectual. Every foot of territory gained by freedom 
is the frontier of a new campaign of advance. Its 
light now shines over all Poland — where the whole 
people wwship its beams. Its grey dawn spreads 



440 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

even beyond the limits of her provinces, foretelling 
the approach of the light still below the horizon. If 
Germany be free, and the Polish provinces of Prussia 
and Austria, speaking the same language and having 
the same national traditions with those of Russia, 
once obtain national institutions, the whole power of 
Russia cannot keep their brethren in darkness or in 
sleep. An imaginary line of posts and sentinels 
alone marks the division. The frontier seems 
movable and unsettled. Russia has hopes of a west- 
ward march. It seems as if Providence prepared the 
eastward spread of liberty and light. With Prussian 
and Austrian Poland free, it would be a war of ex- 
termination alone which could suppress the Poles 
whom Russia holds enslaved. It is the certainty of 
this consequence which causes Russia so anxiously to 
watch and to ward off a danger she sees to be 
fatal if once fastened on her. The problem of the 
age is — to establish a free government on the Russian 
frontier and maintain it there. To prevent it Russia 
has hitherto lavished her blood and treasure — and she 
is ready to lavish more. The evil would not be so 
deadly if it could be stayed at the inner boundary of 
the Polish provinces. But once securely seated in 
Poland, even though she continued faithful to the 
Russian crown, its despotic power must fade away 
before it. Its example would gradually wake the 
idea, the desire, the resolution of obtaining free in- 
stitutions. The progress of cultivation, the habits of 
forethought, the examples of Polish debates, the 
impossibility of excluding Polish newspapers, would 
force the imperial government to a change of policy 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 441 

under penalty of being swept away in case of obsti- 
nate refusal. The idea of equality, the central idea 
of justice and the very foundation of the democratic 
theory, would render it impossible for Russia long to 
continue the mild, legal, public, and constitutional 
rule of a popular government in Poland — side by side 
with the iron despotism however paternal which now 
reigns in Russia. The people of the central pro- 
vinces now are quiet, devoted, and loyal subjects: 
but they are so because they do not desire political 
privileges. If that desire be at all diffused it breeds 
opposition to the despotic power of the Emperor, 
discontent, murmurs, conspiracies, and rebellions; 
and these necessarily engender military law, bloody 
executions, jealous inquisitions, and judicial murders. 
The despotic power is at once converted into a ty- 
ranny, and civil discord consumes the resources of the 
land till despotism or liberty sit on an unquestioned 
throne. It was to prevent this evil that Russia abro- 
gated the Polish constitution after the rebellion of 
1831, and invaded Hungary in 1849. 

But failure in either of those struggles would have 
permanently settled the triumph of free principles. 

The same danger revives at every resurrection of 
the revolutionary spirit — and it must always be met 
by Russia in the same manner, promptly, energeti- 
cally, and successfully. The despotic power of her 
Autocrats is at issue in every revolutionary struggle in 
any part of Germany. 

If therefore Russia can be made to abstain from 
interference — or if her power can be balanced by the 
56 



442 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

counteracting influence of free governments — the 
success of the liberal cause seems certain. 

We know the utmost power we have to meet — 
even in the absence of a Polish propaganda and a 
Polish revolt. Russia with all her vast military re- 
sources for defence against military aggression is by 
no means more powerful in foreign war than several 
other governments of Europe. Her military power 
is not greater for foreign invasion than that of France. 
All Germany united under a federal constitution 
such as ours would have nothing to fear from her 
utmost might. Her population of sixty millions is 
sparsely scattered over an immense territory, in a 
low state of civilization, and of little intelligence; her 
pecuniary resources are limited like those of all 
merely agricultural and pastoral states; and the single 
campaign of Hungary drove her to solicit loans in the 
English market. The compact territory, the intel- 
ligence, the military aptitudes, the central position of 
Germany, if united under one government, fully com- 
pensate for the excess of the heterogeneous popula- 
tion of Russia in a direct contest of military power. 
Russia has never been able to send half of her nom- 
inal army of European operation across her frontiers. 
She could contribute only one hundred and twenty 
thousand men in 1814 to march beyond her limits; 
and the hundred and eighty thousand who entered 
Hungary were not only much the largest force ever 
sent beyond her frontier, but that body taxed to the 
utmost her military resources and was all she could 
spare for foreign aggression. Her power lies not in 
its preponderance, but in its unity, ij^Lprjomptness, 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 443 

and the unhesitating resolution with which it is put 
in motion when the time for action has arrived. If 
therefore the spirit of the revolution once again 
awake all Germany, and her people put not their 
faith in princes but seize the moment of success to 
consolidate their power in the shape of formal gov- 
ernments, taking the sword from hands interested to 
abuse it and placing it in hands honest and able, 
Germany would be mistress of her own fate. If 
Russia offer to interfere, the free governments of the 
world should draw the sword in her defence, and 
proclaim at the head of their armies the restoration 
of Poland among the nations of the world. 

We condescend to debate no question of interna- 
tional law with Russia on this point. She has long 
since made her sword the measure of her rights, and 
we are content to accept the rule. 

If she may intervene at the call of despots in the 
cause of the existing social order, we may do so at 
the cry of suffering liberty in the cause of human 
rights. 

We rely on the " modern instances" of the Rus- 
sian chancery for our right to rebuild what she 
has destroyed. 

If Russian impudence plead the right of nations 
freely and unmolested to dispose of their internal 
affairs we concur in the assertion of the principle — 
and seeking her interpretation of it on the plains of 
Poland and Hungary, in the divan of the Turk, and 
among the principalities of the Danube, we turn to 
the shattered walls of the Polish fortress and to the 
broken columns of the Hungarian temple, and claim 



444 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

with restoring zeal to raise in renewed glory those 
ancient structures. 

To the murmurs of Russian diplomacy we deign 
no other reply than the scornful interrogatory, " Quis 
tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes?" — 

But watchman — what of the night? What of hope 
is there that light shall break from the darkness of 
Europe, that the murky calm of triumphant despotism 
is the harbinger of the bursting storm of revolution? 
Shall the waters stagnate into green and loathsome 
corruption, fertile in slimy reptiles which the sun- 
shine of despotism breeds; or will the breath of the 
tempest waking them into life, restore them to 
sparkling purity and freedom? 

The extremity of the despair of Europe is the 
surest trust that the day of her redemption draws 
nigh. Assuredly her condition has never been 
worse; her people are in that lowest deep below 
which there is no lower: and that is the best assur- 
ance that they will venture a contest which can 
change their fate only for the better. Flight is now 
no refuge for the persecuted children of liberty in 
Europe. All the despots unite in menacing their 
last retreats. Switzerland and England alone remain 
above the flood whereon their feet can rest: and 
even there the long arm of despotism is stretched out 
after them. Russia has remonstrated with England 
on her hospitality — Austria has grumbled at the re- 
ception of Kossuth. France has united with her in 
threatening Switzerland with the consequences of 
indiscreet hospitality: and both would delight in an 
opportunity of dividing her mountain barriers as an 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 445 

indemnity and security against the emigrant machi- 
nations which disturb their repose — like the whispers 
of an evil conscience. The miserable find no refuge 
in Europe; their sole safety is beneath the aegis of 
this Republic. Already the Austrian minister has 
muttered his master's anathemas at the free spirit of 
our people who rose up as one man before the per- 
secuted exile whom the nation delighted to honor: 
and no man can say how long it will be ere imperial 
blood hounds will hunt the fugitives to our shores. 
Since the empire of Nero and Caligula sunk before 
the northern barbarians Europe has felt no such 
night as that which now wraps her. No incubus 
in her darkest night has pressed so heavily on 
her breast. Her Kings are the jailors or the mad- 
house keepers — her people are convicts or maniacs, 
chained to the oar, or cramped in the straight 
jacket, watched with the jealous eye of suspicious 
tyranny, and chastised by the lash of inexorable 
power. Genius, virtue, patriotism, are crimes: the 
only virtues are obsequious submission, or active 
and zealous oppression. Gladstone has removed the 
rags from the running and loathsome sores that 
afflict Italian justice — and Europe has groaned aloud 
at the horrible recital. The days of Robespierre 
grow mild in comparison*— -Seem justified as. a 
passing phrenzy in the presence of these cold- 
blooded, refined, and endless persecutions of the 
virtuous and the patriotic. The sharp madness of 
the revolutionary tribunal is virtue beside the cunning, 
cool, and deliberate villainy of the Neapolitan judges. 
The guillotine is mercy compared to the rotting 



446 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

away of life and limb piecemeal in the damp and 
filthy dungeons of Naples. Incivism is more a crime 
and more a pretext for judicial murder than honest 
devotion to liberty and the confessed constitution 
of the land. The twenty thousand prisoners for 
political offences in the small Kingdom of Naples 
throw into the shade the blackest excesses of the 
iniquitous leaders of the revolution. The murderous 
revenge of Austria on prostrate Hungary has filled 
the world with execration : and the very draymen 
of London constituted themselves the avengers of 
innocence on the vile Haynau. Martial law has 
superceded the criminal tribunals of Germany; and 
political sins are judged before courts constituted for 
the extermination of liberty in the persons of its 
friends. The voice of public discussion is hushed in 
her legislative bodies and the public press is silent 
in its great appeal. Sharp scrutiny scans the traveller 
for traces of his country : and the American or the 
Briton gets scanty courtesy and grudging leave to 
cross the prison bars of the Austrian frontier — lest 
his national costume and tongue might awaken the 
memory of a happier land. Light hearted France 
sighs beneath a despotism such as she has never 
known. Her protector has sharpened his sword 
against her, annihilated her constitution, scattered 
or imprisoned her legislative assembly, exiled her 
most illustrious citizens, banished to deadly climes 
her honorable men — marching them in long lines of 
thousands like felons to the gallows. He has placed 
vile creatures tools of his perfidious ambition in the 
dignities of the government, and murdered by the 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 447 

hundred, in open day, in the streets of Paris, by 
French soldiers, their fellow-citizens who dared prefer 
to him the constitution he had sworn to protect yet 
ventured to destroy. He has seized the press and 
stifled the voice of public complaint. By a mock 
election he has added fraud to his violence — and 
caused the tongue-tied press to speak lies for his 
justification. The heart of France will burst — or 
she will fling off the perjured usurper who apes 
Napoleon's tyranny and strppresses his greatest 
crimes without his immortal services which indem- 
nified France for her sufferings: and then, as her 
legions arm for the rescue of the liberty she loved, 
her voice will be — as the shout of Achilles from the 
rampart. 

The simultaneous agitations of 1848 were the 
breath of the angel troubling the waters: but the 
people had none to carry them to their healing 
touch. — If God shall once more send his angel to 
trouble those waters now so stagnant : if he shall in- 
spire the people of Europe to rise in this great cause : 
if he shall endue them with wisdom, moderation, and 
union: if he shall raise up to lead them men who 
will fling to the winds all hopes of favor, all fear of 
death, all thoughts of compromise, strong to wrest 
the sword from their rulers and powerful to smite 
with it in the cause of liberty, who quail on no path 
however bloody, and once seated at the summit of 
power look undazzled from their height to the still 
higher cause — honest in their triumph as in their 
obscurity, and adjourning till the common foes of 
mankind are humbled the question how they will 



448 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC AND 

secure the trophies and fruits of victory — then the 
day of final judgment is at hand. These things will 
cry aloud to the free of all the earth to be up and 
doing. It will be the voice of God declaring the 
work his inspiration — and calling on those he has 
made free to prove themselves worthy of the blessing. 

But when shall these things be, and what is the 
sign of their coming — say they who will fear no 
storm on the morrow because the sky is bright to- 
day. 

God vouchsafes no prophecy to man in these 
days — but the prophecy of history. 

Shall the Muse of history ever stand — a prophetic 
Cassandra, pale with the vigils of the past but glow- 
ing with the light of the future and her eye glitter- 
ing w r ith prescience of that which shall be — in vain 
warning the nations on their march to ruin, with 
her finger pointing to the open gulf before and the 
power pressing them into it from behind? Shall no 
voice ever attest her truth save the cry of despair 
or the groan of the lost? 

God does not mark the future on the face of the 
heavens or of the earth. The sun will not be veiled 
in blackness nor will the moon be turned to blood 
that we may be warned of the coming desolation. 
The day of our death is in no wise different from 
the day of our birth. The heavens do not frown 
when the earth is stained w r ith crime, nor are they 
illumined with unusual splendor when liberty and 
virtue are triumphant. The flood rushed over an 
astonished world invading the nuptial couch and the 
festive board. The amphitheatre resounded with the 



THE LAST WAR OF FREEDOM. 449 

gladiator's groan and the wild beasts yell while the 
Lord of Peace lay meekly in the manger. The 
great convulsion of modern times broke — like the 
trump of the final day — on the ear of the thoughtless 
revellers: and the earthquake which lately covered 
Europe with ruins came unheralded save by the pre- 
ternatural calm. One moment the waters were as 
glass — the next all foam and fury, kings' hearts failing 
them for fear, and the fountains of the great deep 
broken up to overwhelm them. 

No man can say what a day may bring forth. No 
man is a safe counsellor in the affairs of this Republic 
who is willing to trust its fate to the treacherous 
and shifting chances of the morrow. Let us be as 
they who watch for the morning. 

Whenever the trumpet shall sound for that judg- 
ment day, I look to see the stars and stripes of the 
Republic — the tri-color of the west — streaming in 
matchless splendor over the banners of freedom. 
Her youthful maturity has waxed strong by the 
blessings of freedom — till now her power surpasses 
that of France when she followed Napoleon to Mos- 
cow. Her children bless with grateful voices the 
God of their fathers who gave them liberty to enjoy, 
to protect, to transmit, and to spread. They hail the 
day which summons them to the field, and cheer- 
fully recognize the duty they owe to the world they 
have roused. By their example has Europe been 
waked out of sleep; at their voice have her sons 
grasped the sword and died the death of the free; 
on them has God conferred the precious guardian- 
ship of the sacred fire ; and on them as on the priests 
57 



450 THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. 

of a holy religion rests the high duty of its propaga- 
tion. They have lured man from the quiet and safe 
repose in patriarchal despotism to the knowledge of 
his high destiny, and inspired him with the resolu- 
tion to enjoy its precious fruits. On them rests the 
great privilege of succoring their offspring in the day 
of its need ; of adding the power of arms to the re- 
sistless power of their example : of proving that the 
magnanimous spirit of liberty is equal to its pacific 
blessings; of maintaining in the face of fiercest des- 
pots the rights of mankind. Rather let the pillars 
of the Republic shake to their foundations, and her 
lofty battlements be overwhelmed bearing with them 
the last hope of Liberty on earth, than that she 
should falter in the terrible hour, or swerve from the 
bloodiest path she may be called to tread. t Let her 
sun set — if it so please God — not the pale shadow of 
its early splendor, dimly shining through a long and 
languid twilight, accompanied to its rest by the re- 
quiem of the night birds that succeed to its realm — 
not thus be thy fall, Oh my Country ! — but rather let 
her sun shining in meridian splendor, blazing at the 
zenith in its high calling, suddenly, in the twinkling 
of an eye — when the world may no more be free — 
plunge in midday to endless night. **~ 

So shall men remembering thy greatness say that 
thy fall was worthy of thy glory! 

THE END. 






JAN 2 



1D Ar\ 



ERRATA. 
Read, 
Page 305, line 9, defying, for defiant. 
Page 432, line 2, coercion ; that, for coercion that. 
Page 445, line 26, comparison — seem, for comparison. Seem. 
Page 447, line 10, surpasses, for suppresses. 



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